Directions: Match the famous mathematician to his/her description � each person is used once.
Mathematicians:
Agnesi Johann Bernoulli Fermat Kepler Pascal Riemann
Appolonius Brahmagupta Fibonacci LaGrange Plato Thales
Archimedes Euclid Gauss Lambert Ptolemy Von Leibniz
Jacob Bernoulli Euler Hipparchus Newton Recorde Weierstrass
Descriptions:
11. I was a student of Gauss and spent a great deal of time working on abstract math, especially in geometry and functions. Along with Cauchy, we revolutionized differential equations. There is a sum named after me.
12. I am a Greek, who lived around 600 B.C. and was the first known individual with whom proofs are associated. I was the first known Greek philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, although my occupation was an engineer.
13. I am a Greek, who studied under Socrates and am called the �Maker of Mathematics.� I founded the Academy at Athens, which flourished until 529 A.D. when the Christian Emperor Justinian, who claimed it was a pagan establishment, closed it down. I was also in the military service. My main contributions were in philosophy, mathematics, and science.
14. I am one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. I have a spiral and a screw named after me. I also found the first law of hydrostatic as I was taking a bath one day I discovered that the water level rose as I got in. In all of my excitement, I ran out into the streets naked and was shouting �Eureka, Eureka!�
15. I wrote 13 books called The Elements mostly on geometry. I was a Greek who lived around 300 B.C. My famous fifth postulate led to a type of geometry being named after me.
16. I was called �The Great Geometer.� I wrote the book Conics, which introduced terms such as parabola, hyperbola, and ellipse. I developed the hemicyclium, a sundial which has the hour lines drawn on the surface of a conic section that giving greater accuracy.
17. I am known as the �Father of Trigonometry.� I was a mathematician and astronomer of major importance who calculated the length of a year and studied the motion of the moon. I wrote Commentary on Aratus and Eudoxus and lived between 190 and 120 B.C.
18. I developed the theorem of probability. My family was very influenced by my studies of mathematics and mathematical physics. My first important contributions were a pamphlet on the parallels of logic and algebra published in 1685, work on probability in 1685 and geometry in 1687. My geometry result gave a construction to divide any triangle into four equal parts with two perpendicular lines.
19. I am the founder of Modern Number Theory. I also discovered the �Witch of Agnesi,� which is not named after me. There is a triangle named after me, but it is really not a triangle as you may think of it. I invented the first digital calculator to help his father with his work collecting taxes. In 1647, I proved that a vacuum existed.
20. I am one of the first woman mathematicians mentioned in the history of mathematics. I mastered many languages such as Latin, Greek and Hebrew at an early age. At the age of 9, I published a Latin discourse in defense of higher education for women.
21. I made great contributions to differential and integral calculus. I was also hit on the head with a piece of fruit. My greatest achievement was my work in physics and celestial mechanics, which culminated in the theory of universal gravitation. By 1666, I was working on my three laws of motion.
22. I lived about the same time as Newton and also made great contributions to calculus. There is still a great debate over whether I invented calculus or Newton did. One of my great achievements in mathematics was my development of the binary system of arithmetic.
23. I was an early student of probability. I discovered the use of polar coordinates. I was interested in proving geometrical theorems than in their relation to the real world. I have a famous �Last Theorem� named after me.
24. My brother got me interested in mathematics and I went on to discover �L�Hospoital�s Rule� in calculus. My first publication was on the process of fermentation in 1690. I also made important contributions to mechanics with my work on kinetic energy.
Use this Website to help you: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/ then choose Biography Index or History Index; Google �Math History� or see Mrs. Gavin�s Website for more links.