Great Mathematicians Many of the methods and equations used in numerical methods are associated with the names

of famous mathematicians and scientists. Here, we provide biographical sketches of the more notable pre-twentieth century figures of the modern mathem atical era. As will be seen in the sketches, even the most well recognized pure mathematicians worked on applied problems; indeed, some of their advances were m ade on the way to solving such problems. To appreciate their work, we must remem ber that they did not have the tools we take for granted - they developed them! To help with their places in history, the figure below shows the life-spans of t hose that are discussed.

John Couch Adams [1819-1892] Adams was born in Cornwall and educated at Cambridge University. He was later ap pointed Lowndean Professor and Director of the Observatory at Cambridge. In 1845 , he calculated the position of a planet beyond Uranus that could account for pe rturbations in the orbit of Uranus. His requests for help in looking for the pla net, Neptune; met with little response among English astronomers. An independent set of calculations was

completed in 1846 by Leverrier, whose suggestions to the German astronomer Johan n Galle led to Neptune's discovery. Adams published a memoir on the mean motion of the Moon in 1855 and computed the orbit of the Leonids in 1867. The Leonids a re meteor showers that appear to originate in the constellation Leo. They were e specially prominent every 33 years from 902 to 1866. Charles Babbage [1792-1871] Babbage's design of the Analytical Engine is considered to be the forerunner of the modern computer. Lack of technology and money prevented Babbage from realizi ng his design; however, a model built from his plans at a later date worked as B abbage had predicted. Babbage's ideas on the Analytic Engine would have been los t if Ada Lovelace had not clearly described them along with her own ideas. Altho ugh computer scientists associate Babbage with the computer, he was better known as a prominent mathematician of his time, and he held the position of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge. His important contributions were on the calculus of func tions. Along with George Peacock and John Herschel, Babbage formed the Analytica l Society to promote analytical methods and the use of Leibniz's differential no tation (the geometrically suggestive dy/dx form that we know today). English mat hematicians used Newton's fluxion notation almost exclusively until then, partly because it was widely held among them that Leibniz appropriated Newton's ideas about calculus and claimed them as his own. The fluxion notation (the use of a d ot above the variable x to indicate the derivative, still used in many texts tod ay) was abstract enough to hamper developments in calculus. Babbage's objective was to replace this "dot-age" with "d-ism" at Cambridge. George Boole [1815-1864] Boole was born in Lincoln, in eastern England. In addition to his mathematical p rowess, he studied classics on his own. Boole's work on linear transformations l ed to some aspects of the theory of invariants. He also performed research on di fferential equations and the calculus of finite differences. Boole is best remem bered as one of the creators of mathematical logic, which is one of the foundati ons of modern computer technology. Arthur Cayley [1821 1895]

Arthur Cayley was a British mathematician and astronomer. After graduation in 18 42, he studied and practiced law. During the fourteen years Cayley was at the ba r, he wrote nearly 300 mathematical papers, including some of his best and most original work. During the same time, he met the mathematician, James Joseph Sylv ester, who was also devoting his time to both law and mathematics. They worked t ogether and founded their greatest work, the algebraic theory of invariants, whi ch played a crucial role in the development of the theory of relativity. In 1863 Cayley was elected to the Sadlerian chair of pure mathematics at Cambridge Univ ersity, a position which he held until his death. He won several academic honors including the Royal medal in 1859 and the Copley medal in 1881 from the Royal S ociety. He published the book, ``Treatise on Elliptic Functions'', in 1876. Cayl ey invented and developed the theory of matrices. His other contributions are in the areas of n-dimensional geometry, theory of abstract groups, and physical as tronomy. Pafnuti Lvovich Chebyshev [1821-1894] Chebyshev was born in Okatovo, Kaluga region in Russia. He was one of the most f amous Russian mathematicians and he made numerous important contributions to the theory of numbers, algebra, theory of probability, analysis, and applied mathem atics. He completed his secondary education at home and enrolled in the departme nt of physics and mathematics at Moscow University in 1837. He graduated with a degree in mathematics in 1841. In 1841, he won a silver medal for deriving an er ror estimate in the NewtonRaphson iterative method. He received his doctorate in mathematics from Petersburg University in 1849. In 1850, Chebyshev was elected extraordinary professor of mathematics at Petersburg University where he became a full professor in 1860. Chebyshev was very curious about mechanical inventions during childhood and it was stated that during his very first lesson in geometr y he saw its applicatins to mechanics. His technological inventions include a ca lculating machine built in the late 1870s. When his father became very poor duri ng the famine of 1840, Chebyshev helped support his family. He became interested in the theory of numbers and stated the Chebyshev problem relating probability to the theory of numbers. He died in St. Petersburg, Russia on December 8, 1894. Roger Cotes [1682-1716] Cotes was educated at Cambridge and later was the university's Plumian Professor of Astronomy. He was well regarded by his contemporaries, including Newton. Muc h of Cotes's time was spent in editing a second edition of Newton's Principia Ma thematica. His other work included hydrostatics, treatments of rational algebrai c expressions, the

earliest attempt to form a theory of errors, applications of the method of diffe rences, and problems in particle dynamics. Gabriel Cramer [1704-1752] Gabriel Cramer (1704 - 1752) was born and educated in Geneva, Switzerland and de fended a thesis dealing with sound at the age of eighteen. At age 20, he compete d for the chair of philosophy at the Academie de Calvin in Geneva. Due to his yo ung age, he was appointed as a co-chair of mathematics. He was promoted to chair of mathematics in 1734 and was made professor of philosophy in 1750. Cramer pub lished his major work, ``Introduction a l'analyse des lignes courbes algebriques '', in 1750. He received many honors, including membership in the Royal Society of London, the academies of Berlin, Lyons. Montpellier, and the Institute of Bol ogna. Although he is well-known for Cramer's rule and Cramer's paradox, neither of these were totally his original contributions. In fact, his actual original c ontributions on algebraic curves and mathematical utility are less well-known. I n the context of developing a theory of algebraic curves, Cramer included a meth od of solving systems of algebraic equations, now known as Cramer's rule, in an appendix. Cramer never married and died in Bagnolssur-ceze, France. Ren Descartes [1596-1650] Descartes was born in Tours, France and treated mathematics as a hobby while in the army as a young man. His primary contributions to mathematics are in analyti cal geometry and the theory of vortices. His work laid the foundation for analyt ical geometry and focused on the two-dimensional rectangular coordinate system; however, it is clear that he was well aware of three-dimensional representations of a point in space. He formulated the rule of signs for the positive and negat ive roots of polynomials. Newton later attempted to formulate a similar rule for the complex roots. Descartes is responsible for the custom of using early lette rs of the alphabet for known quantities and those near the end of the alphabet f or unknown quantities. He also invented the notation for expressing powers. Desc artes attempted at one time to give a physical theory of the universe. He abando ned it when he realized that it would result in conflict with the Church. In any case, eight of the ten laws of nature he proposed were incorrect. The first two , however, were almost identical to Newton's.

early As a child, Descartes was allowed to stay in bed until late in the morning becau se of his frail health. He continued this practice later in life, and stated the opinion, obviously shared by many, that good mathematics and good health were p ossible only if one did not wake up too in the morning. Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet [1805-1859] Dirichlet was the student of Gauss and the son-in-law of Jacobi. He succeeded Ga uss as Professor of Higher Mathematics at Gttingen. He devoted much time to expos itions of works by Gauss and Jacobi. His own work established Fourier s Theorem (on heat conduction) and dealt with the theory of numbers, the theory of the pot ential, fifth-degree equations, and definite integrals. Leonhard Euler [1707-1783] Euler was born in Switzerland, studied under Johann Bernoulli at Basel, and comp leted his Master's degree at age 16. He formed a lifelong friendship with Bernou lli's sons Daniel and Nicholas. When they went to Russia at the invitation of Ca therine I, Empress of Russia, they obtained a place for Euler at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Euler eventually became Professor of Mathematics in 1733 when the chair was vacated by Daniel Bernoulli. In 1741, Euler joined the B erlin Academy of Sciences at the strong request of Frederick the Great. He retur ned to St. Petersburg 25 years later (and was succeeded at Berlin by Lagrange). Euler was responsible for establishing Newtonian thought in Russia and Prussia. Euler was blind in one eye by the time he was in his late 20s; within a few year s of returning to Russia from Berlin, he was almost totally blind. Despite this and other misfortunes (including a fire that destroyed many of his papers), Eule r was one of the most competent and prolific mathematicians of any time. Among E uler's contributions to mathematics were extensive revisions of almost all of th e branches of mathematics. He gave a full analytic treatment of algebra, the the ory of equations, trigonometry, and analytical geometry. He treated series expan sions of functions and stated the rule that only convergent infinite series coul d be used safely. He dealt with three-dimensional surfaces, calculus and calculu s of variations, number theory, and imaginary numbers among other subjects. He i ntroduced the current notations for the trigonometric functions (at about the sa me time as Simpson) and showed the relation

between the trigonometric and exponential functions in the equation that bears h is name - (exp(i) = cos + i sin). Another Euler e uation ( + f - e = 2) relates the umber of vertices , the umber of faces f, a d the umber of edges of a polyhedr o . The Beta a d Gamma fu ctio s were i ve ted by Euler. Outside of pure mathema tics, Euler made sig ifica t co tributio s to astro omy, mecha ics, optics, a d acoustics. Yet a other Euler equatio is the i viscid equatio of motio i flui d dy amics. Eve curre t forms of Ber oulli's hydrostatic equatio , Lagra ge's d escriptio of fluids, a d Lagra ge's calculus of variatio s have bee give a E uleria flavor. I astro omy, Euler tackled the three-body problem of celestial mecha ics. Euler's results e abled Joha Mayer to co struct lu ar tables, which ear ed his widow 5000 from the E glish Parliame t; 300 was also se t to Euler as a ho orarium. I short, almost every traditio al subject i physics a d mathema tics that the moder e gi eeri g stude t is likely to e cou ter has Euler's impr i t. This exte ds eve to the symbol , the ex onential symbol e, the functional n otation f(x), the imaginary number i, and the summation symbol . To close the int roduction to Euler, the articularly extraordinary Euler magic s uare (Ref. 21) is shown in Fig. A-2. In magic s uares, the integers from 1 to n2 fill the (n x n) cells of a matrix in such a way that all row sums, column sums, and diagonalsums are identical. Most eo le are familiar with the (3 x 3) s uare. Euler's s uare is an (8 x 8) matrix in which the row sums and column sums (but not the dia gonal sums) are identical. The interesting features are that the sum for half a row or column is half of the full sum, and that the numbers re resent consecutiv e moves that a knight makes on a chessboard to hit every s uare once. (Baron) Jean Ba tiste Jose h Fourier [1768-1830] Fourier was among the rominent French hysicists who also had su erb abilities in mathematics. He is famous for his ex eriments on heat conduction which, along with

ideas drawn from Newton's Law of Cooling, gave rise to Fourier's Theorem. Others had ro osed similar ideas - Lagrange had given s ecific cases and Budan had st ated the same theorem without satisfactory roof. Fourier's work on the analytic al theory of heat contained the Fourier sine series, which is widely used in mod ern analysis. Fourier had accom anied Na oleon's eastern ex edition to Egy t and served as Governor of Lower Egy t from 1798 until the French surrendered to Bri tish forces in 1801. He was created a Baron in 1808 by Na oleon. Karl Friedrich Gauss [1777-1855] Gauss was born in Braunschweig, Germany. Gauss, Lagrange, and La lace are widely considered to be giants of analysis. Gauss's interests were so far ranging that they o ened avenues of investigation for many others. His notable mathematical work included the theory of numbers, various branches of algebra, and the theory of determinants; the last formed the basis for Jacobi's work in that area. He h ad also obtained certain results on the theory of functions that were later foun d by Abel and Jacobi; however, these were not ublished. Gauss also develo ed th e method of least s uares and the fundamental laws of robability distributions. The reluctance to ublish was erha s also related to Gauss's style. His oral resentations contained much of the analysis that was obscured in his ublished w ork, but he was unwilling to allow his students to take notes. In his ublished work, he removed all of his analytical ste s and re laced them with extremely br ief, though rigorous, roofs. As a result, his ublished work was often difficul t to follow. Gauss's interests included astronomy (he calculated the orbital ele ments of the asteroid Ceres following its discovery by Piazzi). His analysis res ulted in an a ointment as Director of the Gttingen observatory and as Professor of Astronomy. Although he retained these ositions until he died, Gauss moved on to other subjects. Among the other subjects were geodesy, o tics, and electrici ty and magnetism. His work on the last is commemorated by the Gauss as the unit of magnetic flux density. Gauss and Weber invented the declination instrument an d the magnetometer, and they built an ironfree magnetic' observatory at Gttingen. Among their researches, they demonstrated the feasibility of telegra hic commun ications.

Charles Hermite [1822 1901] Charles Hermite was a French mathematician, who was the sixth of the seven child ren of Ferdinand Hermite and Madeleine Lallemand. He studied in Paris, first at the College Henri IV and later at the College Louis-le-Grand. There he read the works of Euler, Gauss and Lagrange instead of re aring for his examinations. La ter he tried to continue his studies at Ecole Polytechni ue. He got admitted wit h a oor rank; but left Polytechni ue without graduation. He took the examinatio ns for a career of rofesseur. Later he studied the works of Cauchy and Liouvill e on function theory as well as those of Jacobi on elli tic and hy erbolic funct ions, and generalized some of the theorems. In 1843, when he was only twenty yea rs old, communicated his discoveries to Jacobi who got those letters rinted in Crille's Journal. Hermite joined the Ecole Polytechni ue in 1848 as re etiteur a nd admissions examiner and subse uently took over Duhamel's chair as rofessor o f analysis at the same lace. He became an ins iring figure in mathematics not o nly during his life time but also afterwards. In todays mathematics, Hermite is remembered through Hermitean forms, a com lex generalization of uadratic forms, Hermitean olynomials, his solution of Lame differential e uation, Hermite inte r olation rocedure, and his solution of fifth-degree e uation by elli tic funct ions. Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi [1804-1851] Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (born on 10 December 1804 in Potsdam, Germany and died on 18 February 1851 in Berlin, Germany) was a German mathematician who was born in a wealthy and cultured family. He entered the Gymnasium at Potsdam in 1816 an d excelled in Greek, Latin, history and mathematics by the time he graduated fro m the Gymnasium in 1821. He then joined the University of Berlin and after findi ng the level of lectures in mathematics to be elementary, he studied the works o f Euler, Lagrange and other leading mathematicians rivately and mastered them. He submitted his Ph.D. thesis in 1825 and began his career as Privatdozent at th e University of Berlin at the age of twenty. After seeing no ros ect of romoti on in Berlin, he moved to the University of Konigsberg in May 1826 and became a full rofessor in 1832. Jacobi married Marie chwinck in 1831 and they had five sons and three daughters. Jacobi's fundamental research, mostly in the theory of elli tic functions, mathematical analysis, number theory, geometry, and mechani cs, was ublished in Crelle's Journal fur die reine und angewandte Mathematik. J acobi linked his research to different mathematical disci lines. For exam le, he introduced elli tic functions not only into the number theory, but also into th e theories of integration and differential e uations. Although the theory of det erminants was started by Leibniz, Jacobi resented it systematically and also in troduced the term "Jacobian" in the theory of determinants. The methods he devel o ed for solving linear algebraic e uations and the algebraic eigenvalue roblem have become known as Jacobi methods.

Jacobi had small ox and died in the early art of 1851. Dirichlet, who was a clo se friend of Jacobi, delivered the memorial lecture at the Berlin Academy on 1 J uly 1852 and called him the greatest mathematicians among the members of the Aca demy since Lagrange. Camille Jordan [1838 1921] Camille Jordan was born in Lyons, France on January 5, 1838 and died in Paris on January 22, 1921. He was born into a well-to-do family where his father was an engineer and mother was a sister of the famous ainter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes . Jordan was a brilliant student, entered Ecole Polytechni ue at the age of 17, and continued as a ractising engineer until 1885. He taught simultaneously at t he Ecole Polytechni ue and the College de France from 1873 until his retirement in 1912. He was elected a member of the Academy of ciences in 1881. While worki ng as an engineer, Jordan wrote 120 mathematical research a ers. He was conside red a universal mathematician who ublished a ers in ractically all branches o f mathematics of his time. He made many fundamental contributions to grou theor y including the first art of the famous Jordan-Holder theorem and was regarded as the undis uted master of grou theory. He ublished his results of grou theo ry in ``Traite des substitutions'' in 1870, which remained a bible in grou theo ry for several years. In addition, Jordan obtained several im ortant results in algebra including the finiteness theorems. His works were considered to be the s ource for the discoveries of his students - Lie's ``continuous grou s'' and Klei n's ``discontinuous grou s''. The refinement he suggested to the Gauss eliminati on method for solving linear simultaneous e uations has become known as the Gaus s-Jordan elimination method. Kutta, Wilhelm Kutta, Wilhelm e-Kutta method to systems of irfoils. (1867-1944) was a German mathematician and aerodynamist who extended the Rung develo ed by Runge for numerically solving differential e uations e uations. He also made im ortant contribution to the theory of a

Jose h Louis Lagrange [ 1736-1813 ) Lagrange, born in Turin, Italy, was one of the greatest of the eighteenth-centur y mathematicians. He did not show any taste for mathematics until he was 17. The n, selftaught, he became a lecturer at 18 after only a year's study. At 19, he w rote to Euler with the solution of an iso erimetrical roblem that had been disc ussed for over fifty years. The method used by Lagrange contained the rinci les of calculus of variations. Euler, recognizing the su eriority of Lagrange's a roach, withheld his own a er on the

roblem. Lagrange was thus allowed to com lete his work and to receive the credi t for the invention of a new form of calculus. Lagrange's later works included c orrections or im rovements to works by such eminent mathematicians as Newton, Eu ler, Taylor, and D'Alembert. He gave the com lete solution for the transverse vi bration of a string and discussed echoes, the henomenon of beats, and com ound sounds. Other major work contained solutions of several roblems in dynamics by the calculus of variations. Lagrange's style was to seek general solutions to r oblems; even so, his work was easy to follow because of the meticulous care he u sed to ex lain his rocedures.

Pierre imon (Mar uis de) La lace [1749-1827] La lace was born in Normandy. He began his rofessional life on the basis of a r ecommendation from D'Alembert, who was im ressed by a a er on mechanics. Among his early contributions were roofs of the stability of lanetary motions and wo rk on integral calculus, finite differences, and differential e uations. In the 1780s, he determined the attraction of a s heroid on an exterior article; in so doing, he introduced s herical harmonics (or La lace coefficients) and develo e d the conce t of the otential. imilar coefficients for two-dimensional s ace h ad been resented earlier by Legendre, and the idea of the otential was taken f rom Lagrange's earlier works. Because of his ersonality, La lace was not well l iked. He gave either little or no acknowledgment of results that he had a ro ri ated from others. He did not care if roofs of his work were nonexistent or res ented incorrectly; he was satisfied that his results were correct. Des ite his ettiness, La lace was a very ca able mathematician. He develo ed the La lacian e uation for otentials, and did extensive work on elestial mechanics. In his volu mes on celestial mechanics, La lace ut forth the nebular hy othesis; that is, t hat the solar system evolved from a rotating gaseous nebula. La lace also resen ted the formal roofs for the method of least s uares, which had been given em i rically by Gauss and Legendre. These roofs contain exam les of La lace's a roa ch - his results were correet, but the analysis was so scanty and had so many er rors that many eo le uestioned if he had actually done the work he resented. Other contributions were on determinants (at the same time as Vandermonde), on uadratic factors for e uations of even degree, on definite integrals as solution s to linear differential e uations, and on solutions to the linear artial diffe rential e uation. The theory of ca illary attraction is also due to La lace.

Adrian Marie Legendre [1752-1833] Legendre was born in Toulouse and educated in Paris. He had the misfortune of ha ving lived at the same time as La lace. In addition to a rofessorial a ointmen t, Legendre held various ublic service and minor governmental ositions. Any am bitions he may have had for greater recognition were stifled by La lace's influe nce and hostility. Legendre's major contributions were in geometry, the theory o f numbers, various to ics in integral calculus, and elli tic functions. Among th ese are s ecific instances of s herical harmonics and work on the method of leas t s uares. In both cases, he was u staged by La lace who develo ed the full form of s herical harmonics and gave formal roofs for the method of least s uares. His treatment of elli tic integrals also gave way to later su erior methods by A bel and Jacobi. Urbain Jean Jose h Leverrier [1811-1877] Leverrier was born in t. L, was educated at the Polytechnic chool in Paris, and was later a ointed as a lecturer there. He, inde endently of and later than Ad ams, calculated the orbit of Ne tune. It was his suggestion to Johann Galle that actually led to Ne tune's discovery within 1 degree of the redicted location. Leverrier's main work was in revising tables of lanetary motion. (Baron) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz [16461716] Leibniz was born in Lei zig. His mastery of to ics ranged over mathematics, clas sical languages, hiloso hy, theology, and law. His early mathematical contribut ions included work on combinations and an im rovement of Pascal's

Aside from scientific recognition, La lace sought social rominence. He was n the ost of Minister of the Interior by Na oleon, who sought su ort from scientific community, but he was removed in less than two months because of m etence. Later, when it was clear that Na oleon's em ire was crumbling, La offered his services to the Bourbons and was granted the title of Mar uis.

give the inco lace

calculating machine. His more im ortant mathematical contribution was in the dev elo ment of calculus. Des ite controversy about the source of Leibniz's ideas (s ome thought that he had access to Newton's work), it is clear that his different ial (dy/dx) notation was instrumental in the develo ment of calculus. Other nota tional conveniences that were introduced by Leibniz include the dot as a symbol for multi lication, the e ual sign, the integral sign, and the decimal oint. He is also credited with the develo ment of the binary number system. Leibniz is a lso a major figure in the history of hiloso hy. He held that beings called mona ds were the ultimate elements of the universe, and inferred the existence of God from the harmony that existed among the monads. Euler was one who strongly o o sed this hiloso hy. Leibniz dabbled in dynamics, but it is clear that his knowl edge in that area was limited. He also urged Peter the Great to establish the Ac ademy of ciences at t. Petersburg. ( ir) Isaac Newton [1642-1727] Newton was born in Lincolnshire and was educated at Cambridge. He later held the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge (the same one later held by Babbage). Newton holds a rominent lace in science and mathematics for his conce t of infinitesimal ca lculus, his Law of Gravitation, his Laws of Motion, and his work on o tics. The last included inventions of a refracting telesco e, a reflecting microsco e, and the sextant. Newton's work on calculus used the fluxion notation, which was ver y difficult to master. The controversy with Leibniz caused many English scholars to ersist in using this notation and resulted in the hindrance of mathematical develo ments until Babbage and his colleagues broke free of that rejudice. New ton's genius was so widely recognized that he was always consulted or challenged . For exam le, he acted as editor for other works, and was consulted by Leibniz on infinite series, by Halley on gravitation, and by Hooke on the Earth's diurna l motion. Newton had another controversial relation with Hooke and others regard ing the theory of colors. He was challenged by Johann Bernoulli to solve the bra chistochrone roblem (the curve, now known to be the cycloid, which allows uick est descent from one oint to another under gravity) and another locus roblem. Newton accom lished in a day what had taken Leibniz six months to solve. Another challenge resulted in Newton's laying down the rinci les of trajectories in a matter of hours. It also seemed that Newton took the least obvious route in demo nstrating some of his hy otheses. For exam le, he sought to verify his early hy othesis on gravitation by considering the orbit of the Moon. Incorrect estimates of distances caused the first attem t at verification to fail. He later re eate d the calculations successfully with more

accurate estimates obtained in the course of Hooke's consultation. Another exam le is his develo ment of the series ex ansion for the inverse sine function, fro m which he then deduced the ex ansion for the sine. The genius in Newton is exem lified by the raise he received from Lagrange and even from La lace. Above all , there is the tribute aid to him by Gauss, another of the truly great minds. G auss used words like mangus or clarus to describe other great mathematicians and hiloso hers, but he reserved the word summus (the best) only for Newton. Newto n was knighted in 1705. Blaise Pascal [1623-1662] Pascal was born in Clermont. Because of his health, his father restricted his st udies to languages and rohibited the study of mathematics so that he would not be overworked. Pascal's curiosity soon led him to disregard his father's injunct ion, and he undertook the study of geometry. Pascal wrote a a er on conic secti ons at age 16 and built his celebrated adding machine at age 18. In later years, he went back and forth between mathematics and religious hiloso hy. Among his mathematical works are those related to the hysics of gases and li uids, creati on of the theory of robability (along with Fermat), and the creation of Pascal' s triangle. He also devoted time to the study of cycloids, in which he effective ly found the definite integrals of some trigonometric functions by summation tec hni ues. imeon Denis Poisson [1781-1840] Poisson was born in Pithiviers and was educated by his father to be a hysician. His aversion to that rofession turned into ermanent abandonment when one of t he first atients he treated by himself died (though not through any fault of Po isson). He turned to mathematics and became a rolific contributor on the a lic ations of mathematics to roblems in hysics. The fields with which he dealt inc luded robability, mechanics, ca illary action, heat, electrostatics, and magnet ism. These last two s awned new branches of mathematical hysics. A major mathem atical accom lishment was on the a lication of Fourier series to the solutions of hysical roblems. Another, by which he is best remembered, is the correction of La lace's e uation to roduce the Poisson e nation for the otential.

Jose h Ra hson [1648 1715] Jose h Ra hson was an English mathematician, a Fellow of the Royal ociety of Lo ndon and a friend of Newton. During the great dis ute in the mathematical commun ity at that time over the discovery of differential calculus, naturally Ra hson sided with Newton (instead of Leibnitz). Carl David Tolme Runge [1856 1927] Carl David Tolme Runge was born in Bremen, Germany in a merchant family. His fat her accumulated comfortable ca ital before his death in 1864. While his brothers ursued commercial careers, Runge showed interest in more intellectual careers from childhood. After com leting the Gymnasium at age nineteen, he enrolled in t he University of Munich and took courses with Max Planck with whom he maintained friendshi and contact throughout his life. In the fall of 1877, Planck and Run ge went to Berlin to attend the lectures of Kirchoff and Helmholtz. However, fin ding not much attraction to those lectures, Runge turned to ure mathematics and became a disci le of Weierstrass. He com leted his doctorate on differetial geo metry in the s ring of 1880. Runge, influenced by Kronecker, continued to work o n a variety of roblems in algebra and function theory, including the numerical solution of algebraic e uations. He was given a rofessorshi at Technische Hoch schule in Hannover in 1886 as a condition of marriage. ome of the methods Runge develo ed have become very o ular; the RungeKutta method for the numerical int egration of differential e uations is amenable for digital com uters and still r emains current. Phili Ludwig von eidel [1821 1896] Phili Ludwig von eidel was a German astronomer and mathematician. He was born in Zweibrucken. ince his father, Justus Christian Felix eidel, was a ost off ice official, young Phili eidel had to s end his childhood at several laces. After graduating from school, he took rivate lessons in mathematics from L. C. chnurlein, who studied under Gauss. eidel entered Berlin University in 1840 a nd attended the lectures of Dirichlet and Encke. He moved to Konigsberg in 1842 and studied with Bessel and Jacobi. In 1843, he moved to Munich and obtained his doctorate for the dissertation, Uber die beste Form der iegel in Telesko en, in 1846. eidel's major investigations were in the fields of dio trics and mathe matical analysis with some contributions to the method of least s uares, robabi lity theory and hotometry. The method he ro osed for the solution of linear al gebraic e uations has become known as Gauss- eidel iteration method. The hotome tric measurements of fixed stars and lanets he made were the first ones to be m ade and his investigations led to the roduction of im roved telesco es. He a l ied robability theory to astronomy and studied the relation between the fre uen cy of certain

diseases and climate conditions at Munich. He was made a member of the Bavarian Academy of ciences in 1851 and a full rofessor at Bavaria in 1855. eidel reti red early due to eye roblems and died in Munich in 1896. He remained a bachelor , had to retire early due to eye roblems, and was cared for until 1889 by his u nmarried sister, Lucie, and later by the widow of the clergyman, Langhans. Thomas im son [1710-1761] Thomas im son (1710 - 1761) was born in England. His father was a weaver who wa nted his son to take u the same rofession. Through his studies in arithmetic a nd astrology, im son ac uired a local re utation as a fortune teller during his childhood. For some time, he worked as a weaver during day time and taught at e venings. He ublished his first mathematical contributions in the well-known ``L adies Diary'' in 1736 and his first book, ``A New Treatise of Fluxions'' in 1737 . Although Robert Heath accused him of lagiarism, it brought additional ublici ty to im son. im son was a ointed second mathematical master at the Royal Mil itary Academy in 1743 and was elected fellow of the Royal ociety in 1745. His b ooks on algebra, geometry and trigonometry became best sellers. He assumed the e ditorshi of the annual ``Ladies Diary'' from 1754 and ac uired a re utation as the ablest analyst that England can boast of. It is ironic that im son is best remembered for im son's rule, which was discovered long before him, for finding the area under a curve as where the curve is re laced by a arabola assing through the b) and (C, c). oints (A, a), (B,

Brook Taylor [1685-l73l] Brook Taylor was born in England in a well-to-do family. Taylor's scientific wor k was influenced by his home life. His major scientific contributions are in the areas of vibrating string and ers ective drawing. His father was interested in music and art and entertained many musicians in his home. The family archives o f Taylor contained an un ublished manuscri t entitled On Musick'' and some ainti ngs. Taylor entered t. John's College in 1701, received the LL.B. degree in 170 9, was elected to the Royal ociety in 1712, and was awarded the LL.D. degree in 1714. During this eriod, he visited France several times and develo ed scienti fic corres ondence with Pierre Remond de Montmort and Abraham De Moivre on infin ite series and robability.

Taylor ublished his first im ortant a er, dealing with h the determination of the center of oscillation of a body, in the Philoso hical Transactions of the Ro yal ocietry in 1714. Taylor's most roductive eriod was 1714-1719; his ublica tions dealt with functional analysis and ex eriments on ca illarity, magnetism a nd thermometer. He is best known for the theorem or rocess for ex anding functi ons into infinite series that is commonly known as ``Taylor's series ex ansion'' . The mathematical book he ublished in 1715, ``Methodus'', ualifies Taylor as one of the founders of the calculus of finite differences and as one of the firs t to use it in inter olation and summation of series. Franois Viete (Franciscus Vieta) [1540-1603] Viete was born in Fontenay, was trained as a lawyer, and s ent most of his life in ublic service. He was, however, a re utable mathematician and devoted much o f his leisure time to mathematics. His main interests lay in algebra and geometr y. He knew how to write multi le angle formulas for sines and was ade t at mani ulating algebraic forms. His major work was on the a lication of algebraic tech ni ues to roblems in geometry. His skill in algebra was robably hel ed by his insistence on using notations that clearly indicated a ower, instead of the cus tom of assigning a different letter for each ower. Much of his later work was o n roots of e uations by factoring, and he devised a closedform method for com ut ing the roots of cubic e uations.