Concerning this bunch of German mathematicians.
It's true, many mathematicians were Germans.
There are also a lot of Greek mathematicians, the mathematicians of the antique were mostly Greek (and a few Indian mathematicians).
The German mathematicians where mostly in the 19th and 20th century, seems like there was a mathematical wave floating over Germany.
Next on the list I would say are the French, even if there are many of them not on the list.
It's really funny to see that in some countries maths seemed to be a lot more popular than in others. During my studies I came across an incredible amount of German or French mathematicians, but hardly people from the US or so. I think there are currently some famous mathematicians in the US but today's math is still to difficult for me
So maybe I will come across them in the next years.
Anyway, here are todays numbers:
1)
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was born on 25th December 1642 in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, England and he was an English physicist, mathematician and scientist. I think he is someone that most of you know.
He is not that known for his work in mathematics, but more for his work in physics.
His work on gravitation was revolutionary and his laws for universal motion had a great influence on physics.
He developed a theory covering a lot of theories which where not so connected before, for example the works of Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Rene Descartes.
Newton made laws about motion for heaven and earth at once, which was in complete contrast to Aristotles beliefs that the circumstances on earth are completely different from the circumstances in heaven.
As a tribute to his works in gravitation, the unit Newton was introduced.
1 Newton is the force needed, to speed 1 kilogram of still mass to 1 meter per square-second.
The gravity on earth is 9,81 meters per square-second, which means that one Newton per 102 gram.
Newtons image was also on the English 1-pound note from 1978 to 1988.
20)
Sofia Kovalevskaya (Yes, I copy-pasted the name)
Sofia Kovalevskaya was born on 15th January 1850 in Moscow.
Another woman, yay!
She was a Russian mathematician, actually the first major Russian female in mathematics!
She was also one of the first females to work as an editor of a scientific journal.
And on top of that, she was the first woman to hold a full professorship in northern Europe AND the first female professor for mathematics WORLDWIDE!
Can you believe that it took until 1884 for a woman to become a professor in mathematics? Or to hold a full professorship in northern Europe? The last point really surprised me. I must admit, at my university, there are not so many woman reading lectures in maths, but in other subjects there are many woman and I always though that to be completely normal.
Sofia way to mathematics is really funny. Well, they renewed her room and there was not enough wall paper for her room, so they took old paper they found somewhere in the house and used it for the walls. They where papers on a lecture about differential and integral calculation. 11-year-old Sofia was fascinated and studied those papers, which was the beginning of her interest in maths.
It's was complicated for her because in Russia woman where not allowed to go to university during Sofia's time, so Sofia had to go to Germany. She moved a lot during her life.
She wanted to be a lecturer at university, but was not allowed to be one because she was a woman. She went from Germany back to Russian only to return because she was not allowed to work at university there. She finally went to Sweden where she became a private docent. In 1884 she became a professor "without chair" there for 5 years and was then appointed as a professor "with chair" and was the first woman in northern Europe to hold such a high position at university!
Unfortunately, she died in 1891 because she caught an influenza in Genoa.
The "Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day" is an event in the US named after her, encouraging girls to explore mathematics =) Has anyone of you ever heard of it?
Math is clearly not my thing. Still at 5/10. But still finding the information interesting. Never thought that someone would have to invent the equal sign. But I do agree that numbers should be tangible. Otherwise for people like me, they don't exist.
I think its funny. Thank you Juel for reminding me about that!
