A Mathematician's ApologyA Mathematician's Apology is a 1940 essay by British mathematician G. H. Hardy which defends the pursuit of mathematics for its own sake. Central to Hardy's "apology" – in the sense of a formal justification or defence (as in Plato's Apology of Socrates) – is an argument that mathematics has value independent of its applications. Hardy located this value in what he called the beauty of mathematics and gave some examples of and criteria for mathematical beauty.
Srinivasa RamanujanSrinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar (22 December 1887 – 26 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician who worked during the early 20th century. He made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems then considered unsolvable. Ramanujan initially developed his own mathematical research in isolation.
John von NeumannJohn von Neumann ( ; Hungarian: Neumann János Lajos; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, integrating pure and applied sciences and making major contributions to many fields, including mathematics, physics, economics, computing, and statistics.
G. H. HardyGodfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of population genetics. Hardy is famed for his 1940 essay A Mathematician's Apology, often considered one of the best insights into the mind of a working mathematician written for the layperson.Ring theoryIn algebra, ring theory is the study of rings, algebraic structures in which addition and multiplication are defined and have similar properties to those operations defined for the integers.
Isaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton ( ; 4 January 1643 [O.S. 25 December 1642] – 31 March 1727 [O.S. 20 March 1726]) was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, historian and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed.
Alfréd RényiAlfréd Rényi (20 March 1921 – 1 February 1970) was a Hungarian mathematician known for his work in probability theory, though he also made contributions in combinatorics, graph theory, and number theory.
John Horton ConwayJohn Horton Conway (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician. He was active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory. He also made contributions to many branches of recreational mathematics, most notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.Informal mathematicsInformal mathematics, also called naïve mathematics, has historically been the predominant form of mathematics at most times and in most cultures, and is the subject of modern ethno-cultural studies of mathematics.
Leaning Tower of PisaThe Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: torre pendente di Pisa), or simply the Tower of Pisa (torre di Pisa), is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. The tower is one of three structures in Pisa's Cathedral Square (Piazza del Duomo), which includes the cathedral and Pisa Baptistry.
Richard FeynmanAmerican theoretical physicist (1918–1988)Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō Tomonaga "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics (QED), with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles".
Évariste GaloisÉvariste Galois (; French:; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem that had been open for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory, two major branches of abstract algebra.
Taxicab numberIn mathematics, the nth taxicab number, typically denoted Ta(n) or Taxicab(n), is defined as the smallest integer that can be expressed as a sum of two positive integer cubes in n distinct ways. The most famous taxicab number is 1729 = Ta(2) = 13 + 123 = 93 + 103, also known as the Hardy–Ramanujan number. The name is derived from a conversation ca. 1919 involving mathematicians G. H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.