The World Great Mathematicians

Charles Babbage (Dec 26 1792 - Oct 18 1871) Born Teignmouth, England. Died London, England. Augustin Louis Cauchy (Aug 21 1789 - May 23 1857) Born Paris, France. Died Sceaux, France. Albert Einstein (March 14 1879 - April 18 1955) Born Ulm, Germany. Died Princeton, USA. Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (March 21 1768 - May 16 1830) Born Auxerre, France. Died Paris, France. Carl Friedrich Gauss (April 30 1777 - Feb 23 1855) Born Brunswick, Germany. Died Gttingen, Germany. David Hilbert (Jan 23 1862 - Feb 14 1943) Born Knigsberg, Germany. Died Gttingen, Germany. Karl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (Dec 10 1804 - Feb 18 1851) Born Potsdam, Germany. Died Berlin, Germany. Pierre-Simon Laplace (March 28 1749 - March 5 1827) Born Beaumont-en-Auge, France. Died Paris, France. Andrei Andreyevich Markov (June 14 1856 - July 20 1922) Born Ryazan, Russia. Died St Petersburg, Russia. Sir Isaac Newton (Jan 4 1643 - March 31 1727) Born Woolsthorpe, England. Died London, England. Blaise Pascal (June 19 1623 - Aug 19 1662) Born Clermont-Ferrand, France. Died Paris, France. Carle David Tolm Runge (Aug 30 1856 - Jan 3 1927) Born Bremen, Germany. Died Gttingen, Germany. George Gabriel Stokes (Aug 13 1819 - Feb 1 1903) Born Sligo, Ireland. Died Cambridge, England. Alan Mathison Turing (June 23 1912 - June 7 1954) Born London, England. Died Wilmslow, England.

Niels Henrik Abel

Niels Henrik Abel, born August 5 of 1802, and dead April 16 of 1829, were a brilliant Norwegian mathematician. It won a wide recognition to the age of 18 with their first Work in that it proved that the general equation of fifth degree is insoluble for algebraic procedures. Abel was instrumental in establishing mathematical analysis in a rigorous base. In their biggest work "Recherches fonctions elliptiques" (Investigations in elliptic Functions, 1827), it revolutionized the understanding from the elliptic functions when studying the inverse of these functions.

Archimedes

Archimedes, b. c.298 BC, d. 212 BC, was the greatest mathematician of ancient times (see MATHEMATICS, HISTORY OF). A native of Syracuse, Sicily, he was killed during its capture by the Romans in the Second Punic War. Stories from Plutarch, Livy, and Polybius describe machines including the CATAPULT, the compound pulley, and a burning-mirror invented by Archimedes for the defense of Syracuse. He spent some time in Egypt, where he invented a device now known as ARCHIMEDES' SCREW. Archimedes made many original contributions to GEOMETRY in his work on the areas of plane figures and the areas and volumes of curved surfaces. His methods anticipated INTEGRAL CALCULUS 2,000 years before it was "invented" by Sir Isaac NEWTON and Gottfried Wilhelm von LEIBNIZ. Archimedes proved that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds the volume of a circumscribed cylinder. Evidently he considered this one of his most significant accomplishments, since he requested that a representation of a cylinder circumscribing a sphere be inscribed on his tomb. He was also known for his approximation of pi (between the values 310/71 and 31/7) obtained by circumscribing and inscribing a circle with regular polygons having 96 sides. In theoretical mechanics, Archimedes is responsible for fundamental theorems

concerning the centers of gravity of plane figures and solids, and he is famous for his theorem on the weight of a body immersed in a liquid, called ARCHIMEDES' PRINCIPLE. A famous story, unfortunately with no foundation, relates that having discovered this while in the bath, he ran naked through the streets crying, "Eureka," or "I have found it." Archimedes' treatises are remarkable for their original ideas, rigorous demonstrations, and excellent computational technique. His surviving works include On the Sphere and Cylinder, Measurement of a Circle, On Conoids and Spheroids, On Spirals, On Plane Equilibriums, The Sand Reckoner, Quadrature of the Parabola, On Floating Bodies, and Stomachion (fragment only).

Cauchy, Augustin Louis

Augustin Louis Cauchy, b. Aug. 21, 1789, d. May 23, 1857, was a French mathematician and mathematical physicist who proved (1811) that the angles of a convex POLYHEDRON are determined by its faces (the plane surfaces that bound a geometric solid). Numerous terms in mathematics bear his name, for example, the Cauchy integral theorem, in the theory of complex functions, and the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya existence theorem for the solution of partial DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS. Cauchy was the first to make a careful study of the conditions for CONVERGENCE of infinite SERIES; he also gave a rigorous definition of an integral independent of the process of differentiation and developed the mathematical theory of elasticity. His texts Cours d'analyse (Course on Analysis, 1821) and the 4-volume Exercises d'analyse et de physique mathematique (Exercises in Analysis and in Mathematical Physics, 1840-47) were highly influential.

Einstein, Albert

The German-American physicist Albert Einstein, b. Ulm, Germany, Mar. 14, 1879, d. Princeton, N.J., Apr. 18, 1955, contributed more than any other scientist to the 20thcentury vision of physical reality. In the wake of World War I, Einstein's theories-especially his theory of RELATIVITY--seemed to many people to point to a pure quality of human thought, one far removed from the war and its aftermath. Seldom has a scientist received such public attention for having cultivated the fruit of pure learning. EARLY LIFE. Einstein's parents, who were nonobservant Jews, moved from Ulm to Munich when Einstein was an infant. The family business was the manufacture of electrical apparatus; when the business failed (1894), the family moved to Milan, Italy. At this time Einstein decided officially to relinquish his German citizenship. Within a year, still without having completed secondary school, Einstein failed an examination that would have allowed him to pursue a course of study leading to a diploma as an electrical engineer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (the Zurich Polytechnic). He spent the next year in nearby Aarau at the cantonal secondary school, where he enjoyed excellent teachers and first-rate facilities in physics. Einstein returned in 1896 to the Zurich Polytechnic, where he graduated (1900) as a secondary school teacher of mathematics and physics. After a lean two years he obtained a post at the Swiss patent office in Bern. The patentoffice work required Einstein's careful attention, but while employed (1902-09) there, he completed an astonishing range of publications in theoretical physics. For the most part these texts were written in his spare time and without the benefit of close contact with

either the scientific literature or theoretician colleagues. Einstein submitted one of his scientific papers to the University of Zurich to obtain a Ph.D. degree in 1905. In 1908 he sent a second paper to the University of Bern and became privatdocent, or lecturer, there. The next year Einstein received a regular appointment as associate professor of physics at the University of Zurich. By 1909, Einstein was recognized throughout German-speaking Europe as a leading scientific thinker. In quick succession he held professorships at the German University of Prague and at the Zurich Polytechnic. In 1914 he advanced to the most prestigious and best-paying post that a theoretical physicist could hold in central Europe: professor at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft in Berlin. Although Einstein held a cross-appointment at the University of Berlin, from this time on he never again taught regular university courses. Einstein remained on the staff at Berlin until 1933, from which time until his death (1955) he held an analogous research position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. SCIENTIFIC WORK. The 1905 Papers. In the first of three seminal papers published in 1905, Einstein examined the phenomenon discovered by Max PLANCK, according to which electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating objects in quantities that were ultimately discrete. The energy of these quantities--the so-called light-quanta--was directly proportional to the frequency of the radiation. This circumstance was perplexing because classical electromagnetic theory, based on Maxwell's equations and the laws of thermodynamics (see MAXWELL, JAMES CLERK), had assumed that electromagnetic energy consisted of waves propagating in a hypothetical, all-pervasive medium called the luminiferous ether, and that the waves could contain any amount of energy no matter how small. Einstein used Planck's quantum hypothesis to describe visible electromagnetic radiation, or light. According to Einstein's heuristic viewpoint, light could be imagined to consist of discrete bundles of radiation. Einstein used this interpretation to explain the PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT, by which certain metals emit electrons when illuminated by light with a given frequency. Einstein's theory, and his subsequent elaboration of it, formed the basis for much of QUANTUM MECHANICS. The second of Einstein's 1905 papers proposed what is today called the special theory of RELATIVITY. At the time Einstein knew that, according to Hendrik Antoon LORENTZ's theory of electrons, the mass of an electron increased as the velocity of the electron approached the velocity of light. Einstein also knew that the electron theory, based on Maxwell's equations, carried along with it the assumption of a luminiferous ether, but that attempts to detect the physical properties of the ether had not succeeded. Einstein realized that the equations describing the motion of an electron in fact could describe the nonaccelerated motion of any particle or any suitably defined rigid body. He based his new kinematics on a reinterpretation of the classical principle of relativity--that the laws of physics had to have the same form in any frame of reference. As a second fundamental hypothesis, Einstein assumed that the speed of light remained constant in all frames of reference, as required by classical Maxwellian theory. Einstein abandoned the hypothesis of the ETHER, for it played no role in his kinematics or in his reinterpretation of Lorentz's theory of electrons. As a consequence of his theory Einstein recovered the

phenomenon of time dilatation, wherein time, analogous to length and mass, is a function of the velocity of a frame of reference (see FITZGERALD-LORENTZ CONTRACTION). Later in 1905, Einstein elaborated how, in a certain manner of speaking, mass and energy were equivalent. Einstein was not the first to propose all the elements that went into the special theory of relativity; his contribution lies in having unified important parts of classical mechanics and Maxwellian electrodynamics. The third of Einstein's seminal papers of 1905 concerned statistical mechanics, a field of study that had been elaborated by, among others, Ludwig Boltzmann and Josiah Willard Gibbs. Unaware of Gibbs' contributions, Einstein extended Boltzmann's work and calculated the average trajectory of a microscopic particle buffeted by random collisions with molecules in a fluid or in a gas. Einstein observed that his calculations could account for BROWNIAN MOTION, the apparently erratic movement of pollen in fluids, which had been noted by the British botanist Robert Brown. Einstein's paper provided convincing evidence for the physical existence of atom-sized molecules, which had already received much theoretical discussion. His results were independently discovered by the Polish physicist Marian von Smoluchowski and later elaborated by the French physicist Jean Perrin. The General Theory of Relativity. After 1905, Einstein continued working in all three of the above areas. He made important contributions to the quantum theory, but increasingly he sought to extend the special theory of relativity to phenomena involving acceleration. The key to an elaboration emerged in 1907 with the principle of equivalence, in which gravitational acceleration was held a priori indistinguishable from acceleration caused by mechanical forces; gravitational mass was therefore identical with inertial mass. Einstein elevated this identity, which is implicit in the work of Isaac NEWTON, to a guiding principle in his attempts to explain both electromagnetic and gravitational acceleration according to one set of physical laws. In 1907 he proposed that if mass were equivalent to energy, then the principle of equivalence required that gravitational mass would interact with the apparent mass of electromagnetic radiation, which includes light. By 1911, Einstein was able to make preliminary predictions about how a ray of light from a distant star, passing near the Sun, would appear to be attracted, or bent slightly, in the direction of the Sun's mass. At the same time, light radiated from the Sun would interact with the Sun's mass, resulting in a slight change toward the infrared end of the Sun's optical spectrum. At this juncture Einstein also knew that any new theory of GRAVITATION would have to account for a small but persistent anomaly in the perihelion motion of the planet Mercury. About 1912, Einstein began a new phase of his gravitational research, with the help of his mathematician friend Marcel Grossmann, by phrasing his work in terms of the tensor calculus of Tullio Levi-Civita and Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro. The tensor calculus greatly facilitated calculations in four-dimensional space-time (see COSMOLOGY; SPACETIME CONTINUUM), a notion that Einstein had obtained from Hermann Minkowski's 1907 mathematical elaboration of Einstein's own special theory of relativity. Einstein called his new work the general theory of relativity. After a number of false starts, he published (late 1915) the definitive form of the general theory. In it the gravitational field equations were covariant; that is, similar to Maxwell's equations, the field equations took the same form in all equivalent frames of reference. To their advantage from the beginning, the covariant field equations gave the observed perihelion motion of the planet

Mercury. In its original form, Einstein's general relativity has been verified numerous times in the past 60 years, especially during solar-eclipse expeditions when Einstein's light-deflection prediction could be tested. LATER LIFE. When British eclipse expeditions in 1919 confirmed his predictions, Einstein was lionized by the popular press. Einstein's personal ethics also fired public imagination. Einstein, who after returning to Germany in 1914 did not reapply for German citizenship, was one of only a handful of German professors who remained a pacifist and did not support Germany's war aims. After the war, when the victorious allies sought to exclude German scientists from international meetings, Einstein--a Jew traveling with a Swiss passport--remained an acceptable German envoy. Einstein's political views as a pacifist and a Zionist pitted him against conservatives in Germany, who branded him a traitor and a defeatist. The public success accorded his theories of relativity evoked savage attacks in the 1920s by the anti-Semitic physicists Johannes Stark and Philipp Lenard, men who after 1932 tried to create a so-called Aryan physics in Germany. Just how controversial the theories of relativity remained for less flexibly minded physicists is revealed in the circumstances surrounding Einstein's reception of a Nobel Prize in 1921--it was awarded not for relativity but for his 1905 work on the photoelectric effect. With the rise of fascism in Germany, Einstein moved (1933) to the United States and abandoned his pacifism. He reluctantly agreed that the new menace had to be put down through force of arms. In this context Einstein sent (1939) a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that urged that the United States proceed to develop an ATOMIC BOMB before Germany did. The letter, composed by Einstein's friend Leo SZILARD, was one of many exchanged between the White House and Einstein, and it contributed to Roosevelt's decision to fund what became the MANHATTAN PROJECT. However much he appeared to the public as a champion of unpopular causes, such as his objection in the 1950s to the House Committee on Un-American Activities and his efforts toward nuclear disarmament, Einstein's central concerns always revolved around physics. At the age of 59, when other theoretical physicists would long since have abandoned original scientific research, Einstein and his co-workers Leopold Infeld and Banesh Hoffmann achieved a major new result in the general theory of relativity. Until the end of his life Einstein sought a UNIFIED FIELD THEORY, whereby the phenomena of gravitation and electromagnetism could be derived from one set of equations. Few physicists followed Einstein's path in the years after 1920. Quantum mechanics, instead of general relativity, drew their attention. For his part, Einstein could never accept the new quantum mechanics with its principle of indeterminacy, as formulated by Werner Heisenberg (see UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE) and elaborated into a new epistemology by Niels BOHR. Although Einstein's later thoughts were neglected for decades, physicists today refer seriously and awesomely to Einstein's dream--a grand unification of physical theory.

Fourier, Joseph

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, b. Mar. 21, 1768, d. May 16, 1830, was a French mathematician known chiefly for his contribution to the mathematical analysis of heat flow. Trained for the priesthood, Fourier did not take his vows but instead turned toward mathematics. He first studied (1794) and later taught mathematics at the newly created Ecole Normale. He joined (1798) Napoleon's army in its invasion of Egypt as scientific advisor, to help establish educational facilities there and to carry out archaeological explorations. After his return to France in 1801 he was appointed prefect of the department of Isere by Napoleon. Throughout his life Fourier pursued his interest in mathematics and mathematical physics. He became famous for his Theorie analytique de la Chaleur (1822), a mathematical treatment of the theory of heat. He established the partial differential equation governing heat diffusion and solved it by using infinite series of trigonometric functions. Though these series had been used before, Fourier investigated them in much greater detail. His research, initially criticized for its lack of rigor, was later shown to be valid. It provided the impetus for later work on trigonometric series and the theory of functions of a real variable.

Gauss, Carl Friedrich.

Carl Friedrich Gauss, b. Apr. 30, 1777, d. Feb. 23, 1855, was a German mathematician who dominated the mathematical community during and after his lifetime. A child prodigy, Gauss taught himself reading and arithmetic by the age of three. Recognizing his talent, the Duke of Brunswick in 1792 provided him with a stipend to allow him to pursue his education. While still attending Caroline College (1792-95), Gauss formulated the least-squares method and a conjecture on the distribution of prime numbers among all numbers; the latter was proved by Jacques Hadamard in 1896. During this period, Gauss did not have access to a good mathematical library and therefore rediscovered many theorems that had already been accepted. The situation changed in 1795, when he went to Gottingen with its excellent library. In 1795, Gauss discovered the fundamental theorem of quadratic residues, which deals with the concept of congruence in number theory. In 1796 he made his first mark as a serious mathematician by proving the possibility of constructing a regular 17-sided polygon using only a ruler and a compass. The next 4 years were very productive. Ideas came to him so rapidly that he could pursue only some of them. In 1799 the University of Helmstedt granted Gauss a Ph.D. degree for a dissertation that gave the first proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra. Gauss had two major achievements in 1801. The first was the publication of his Disquisitiones arithmeticae, a treatise on number theory, which contained his solutions to many outstanding problems. This book set the pattern for future research and won Gauss major recognition among mathematicians. The second was caused by the discovery of the asteroid Ceres. It had been briefly observed in January 1801 but had then disappeared

from view. Gauss computed the orbit using an improved theory and predicted where and when Ceres would reappear. When the prediction was proved correct, Gauss's fame spread far and wide. He subsequently accepted a financially secure position as astronomer at the Gottingen Observatory. To fulfill his sense of civic responsibility, Gauss undertook a geodetic survey of his country and did much of the field work himself. In his theoretical work on surveying, Gauss developed results he needed from statistics and differential geometry. During the 1820s, with the collaboration of the physicist Wilhelm Weber, he explored many areas of physics, including magnetism, mechanics, acoustics, and optics. In 1833 he constructed the first telegraph. Gauss's publications were polished and finished works that opened new paths for investigation and contained the seeds of much future work. To date 12 volumes have been published.

Hilbert, David

David Hilbert, b. Jan. 23, 1862, d. Feb. 14, 1943, was a German mathematician whose work in geometry had the greatest influence on the field since Euclid. After making a systematic study of the axioms of Euclidean geometry, Hilbert proposed a set of 21 such axioms and analyzed their significance. Hilbert received his Ph.D. from the University of Konigsberg and served on its faculty from 1886 to 1895. He became (1895) professor of mathematics at the University of Gottingen, where he remained for the rest of his life. Between 1900 and 1914, many mathematicians from the United States who later played an important role in the development of mathematics went to Gottingen to study under him. Hilbert contributed to several branches of mathematics, including algebraic number theory, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and the calculus of variations. He also

enumerated 23 unsolved problems of mathematics that he considered worthy of further investigation. Since Hilbert's time, nearly all these problems have been solved.

Laplace, Pierre Simon de

The French astronomer and mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace, b. Mar. 28, 1749, d. Mar. 5, 1827, is best known for his nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system. He also confirmed the long-term stability of the solar system by mathematically demonstrating the long-term periodicity of three apparently cumulative sets of irregularities in the motions of solar-system bodies. These three irregularities were, as follows: the acceleration of the mean (average) motions of the mutually perturbing planets Jupiter and Saturn, the acceleration of the mean motions of the mutually perturbing inner three Galilean satellites of Jupiter, and the acceleration of the mean motion of the Moon. Laplace's monumental 5-volume work, Traite de mecanique celeste (Treatise on Celestial Mechanics, 1799-1825; Eng. trans., 1829-39), was the culmination of over a century of work devoted to the mathematical explanation, on the basis of gravitational theory, of the motions of the bodies of the solar system. Earlier, in his popular-level Exposition du systeme du monde (Exposition of the System of the World, 1796), he presented his famous nebular hypothesis, which viewed the solar system as originating from the contracting and cooling of a large, flattened, and slowly rotating cloud of incandescent

gas. Among his other findings in astronomy was the existence of an invariable plane in our solar system about which the whole system oscillates. In mathematical analysis Laplace introduced the potential function and Laplace coefficients. He also brought the theory of mathematical probability to a mature stage. He conducted experiments on capillary action and specific heat with Antoine Lavoisier. Laplace also contributed to the foundations of the mathematical science of electricity and magnetism. In optics, however, he opposed the wave theory of light of Thomas YOUNG. Laplace had a prosperous career. When he was 19, d'Alembert obtained an appointment for him as professor of mathematics at the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He became an associate (1773) and then a pensioner (1785) of the Paris Academy of Sciences. During the French Revolution he helped to establish the metric system, taught the calculus at the Ecole Normale, and was a member of the French Institute (1795). Under Napoleon he was a member, then chancellor, of the Senate, received the Legion of Honor (1805), and became Count of the Empire (1806). With his political suppleness, he was named a marquis (1817) after the Bourbon restoration. In his later years he lived in Arcueil, where he helped to found the Societe d'Arcueil and encouraged the research of young scientists.

Newton, Sir Isaac

Sir Isaac Newton, the culminating figure in the scientific revolution of the 17th century, was born on Jan. 4, 1643 (N.S.; Dec. 25, 1642, O.S.), in the manor house of Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. Perhaps the greatest scientific genius of all time, Newton made fundamental contributions to every major area of scientific and mathematical concern to his generation. Newton came from a family of modest yeoman farmers. His father died several months before he was born. Three years later his mother remarried and moved to a nearby village, leaving Isaac in the care of his maternal grandmother. Upon the death of his stepfather in 1656, Newton's mother removed him from grammar school in Grantham in hopes of training him to manage her now much-enlarged estate, but even then Newton's interests ran more toward books and mathematical diversions. His family decided that he should be prepared for the university, and he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in June 1661. Even though instruction at Cambridge was still dominated by the philosophy of Aristotle, some freedom of study was permitted in the student's third year. Newton immersed himself in the new mechanical philosophy of DESCARTES, GASSENDI, and BOYLE; in the new algebra and analytical geometry of VIETA, Descartes, and WALLIS; and in the mechanics and Copernican astronomy of GALILEO. At this stage Newton showed no great talent. His scientific genius emerged suddenly when the plague closed the University in the summer of 1665 and he had to return to Lincolnshire. There, within 18 months he began revolutionary advances in mathematics, optics, physics, and astronomy. Calculus

During the plague years Newton laid the foundation for elementary differential and integral CALCULUS, several years before its independent discovery by the German philosopher and mathematician LEIBNIZ. The "method of fluxions," as he termed it, was based on his crucial insight that the integration of a function (or finding the area under its curve) is merely the inverse procedure to differentiating it (or finding the slope of the curve at any point). Taking differentiation as the basic operation, Newton produced simple analytical methods that unified a host of disparate techniques previously developed on a piecemeal basis to deal with such problems as finding areas, tangents, the lengths of curves, and their maximal and minima. Even though Newton could not fully justify his methods--rigorous logical foundations for the calculus were not developed until the 19th century--he receives the credit for developing a powerful tool of problem solving and analysis in pure mathematics and physics. Isaac Barrow, a Fellow of Trinity College and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University, was so impressed by Newton's achievement that when he resigned his chair in 1669 to devote himself to theology, he recommended that the 27-year-old Newton take his place. Optics Newton's initial lectures as Lucasian Professor dealt with OPTICS, including his remarkable discoveries made during the plague years. He had reached the revolutionary conclusion that white light is not a simple, homogeneous entity, as natural philosophers since Aristotle had believed. When he passed a thin beam of sunlight through a glass prism, he noted the oblong spectrum of colors--red, yellow, green, blue, violet--that formed on the wall opposite. Newton showed that the SPECTRUM was too long to be explained by the accepted theory of the bending (or REFRACTION) of light by dense media. The old theory said that all rays of white light striking the prism at the same angle would be equally refracted. Newton argued that white light is really a mixture of many different types of rays, that the different types of rays are refracted at slightly different angles, and that each different type of ray is responsible for producing a given spectral color. A so-called crucial experiment confirmed the theory. Newton selected out of the spectrum a narrow band of light of one color. He sent it through a second prism and observed that no further elongation occurred. All the selected rays of one color were refracted at the same angle. These discoveries led Newton to the logical, but erroneous, conclusion that telescopes using refracting lenses could never overcome the distortions of chromatic dispersion. He therefore proposed and constructed a reflecting telescope (see TELESCOPE, OPTICAL), the first of its kind, and the prototype of the largest modern optical telescopes. In 1671 he donated an improved version to the Royal Society of London, the foremost scientific society of the day. As a consequence, he was elected a fellow of the society in 1672. Later that year Newton published his first scientific paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the society. It dealt with the new theory of light and color and is one of the earliest examples of the short research paper. Newton's paper was well received, but two leading natural philosophers, Robert HOOKE and Christian HUYGENS, rejected Newton's naive claim that his theory was simply derived with certainty from experiments. In particular they objected to what they took to be Newton's attempt to prove by experiment alone that light consists in the motion of small particles, or corpuscles, rather than in the transmission of waves or pulses, as they both believed. Although Newton's subsequent denial of the use of hypotheses was not convincing, his ideas about scientific method won universal assent, along with his

corpuscular theory, which reigned until the wave theory was revived in the early 19th century. The debate soured Newton's relations with Hooke. Newton withdrew from public scientific discussion for about a decade after 1675, devoting himself to chemical and alchemical researches. He delayed the publication of a full account of his optical researches until after the death of Hooke in 1703. Newton's Opticks appeared the following year. It dealt with the theory of light and color and with Newton's investigations of the colors of thin sheets, of "Newton's rings," and of the phenomenon of diffraction of light. To explain some of his observations he had to graft elements of a wave theory of light onto his basically corpuscular theory. Gravitation Newton's greatest achievement was his work in physics and CELESTIAL MECHANICS, which culminated in the theory of universal GRAVITATION. Even though Newton also began this research in the plague years, the story that he discovered universal gravitation in 1666 while watching an apple fall from a tree in his garden is a myth. By 1666, Newton had formulated early versions of his three LAWS OF MOTION. He had also discovered the law stating the centrifugal force (or force away from the center) of a body moving uniformly in a circular path. However, he still believed that the earth's gravity and the motions of the planets might be caused by the action of whirlpools, or vortices, of small corpuscles, as Descartes had claimed. Moreover, although he knew the law of centrifugal force, he did not have a correct understanding of the mechanics of circular motion. He thought of circular motion as the result of a balance between two forces--one centrifugal, the other centripetal (toward the center)--rather than as the result of one force, a centripetal force, which constantly deflects the body away from its inertial path in a straight line. Newton's great insight of 1666 was to imagine that the Earth's gravity extended to the Moon, counterbalancing its centrifugal force. From his law of centrifugal force and Kepler's third law of planetary motion (see KEPLER, JOHANNES), Newton deduced that the centrifugal (and hence centripetal) force of the Moon or of any planet must decrease as the inverse square of its distance from the center of its motion. For example, if the distance is doubled, the force becomes one-fourth as much; if distance is trebled, the force becomes one-ninth as much. This theory agreed with Newton's data to within about 11%. In 1679, Newton returned to his study of celestial mechanics when his adversary Hooke drew him into a discussion of the problem of orbital motion. Hooke is credited with suggesting to Newton that circular motion arises from the centripetal deflection of inertially moving bodies. Hooke further conjectured that since the planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus (Kepler's first law), the centripetal force drawing them to the Sun should vary as theit. Hooke could not prove this theory mathematically, although he boasted that he could. Not to be shown up by his rival, Newton applied his mathematical talents to proving Hooke's conjecture. He showed that if a body obeys Kepler's second law (which states that the line joining a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times), then the body is being acted upon by a centripetal force. This discovery revealed for the first time the physical significance of Kepler's second law. Given this discovery, Newton succeeded in showing that a body moving in an elliptical

path and attracted to one focus must indeed be drawn by a force that varies as the inverse square of the distance. Later even these results were set aside by Newton. In 1684 the young astronomer Edmond HALLEY, tired of Hooke's fruitless boasting, asked Newton whether he could prove Hooke's conjecture and to his surprise was told that Newton had solved the problem a full 5 years before but had now mislaid the paper. At Halley's constant urging Newton reproduced the proofs and expanded them into a paper on the laws of motion and problems of orbital mechanics. Finally Halley persuaded Newton to compose a full-length treatment of his new physics and its application to astronomy. After 18 months of sustained effort, Newton published (1687) the Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), or Principia, as it is universally known. By common consent the Principia is the greatest scientific book ever written. Within the framework of an infinite, homogeneous, three-dimensional, empty space and a uniformly and eternally flowing "absolute" time, Newton fully analyzed the motion of bodies in resisting and nonresisting media under the action of centripetal forces. The results were applied to orbiting bodies, projectiles, pendulum, and free-fall near the Earth. He further demonstrated that the planets were attracted toward the Sun by a force varying as the inverse square of the distance and generalized that all heavenly bodies mutually attract one another. By further generalization, he reached his law of universal gravitation: every piece of matter attracts every other piece with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Given the law of gravitation and the laws of motion, Newton could explain a wide range of hitherto disparate phenomena such as the eccentric orbits of comets, the causes of the tides (see TIDE) and their major variations, the precession of the Earth's axis, and the perturbation of the motion of the Moon by the gravity of the Sun. Newton's one general law of nature and one system of mechanics reduced to order most of the known problems of astronomy and terrestrial physics. The work of Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler was united and transformed into one coherent scientific theory. The new Copernican worldpicture finally had a firm physical basis. Because Newton repeatedly used the term "attraction" in the Principia, mechanical philosophers attacked him for reintroducing into science the idea that mere matter could act at a distance upon other matter. Newton replied that he had only intended to show the existence of gravitational attraction and to discover its mathematical law, not to inquire into its cause. He no more than his critics believed that brute matter could act at a distance. Having rejected the Cartesian vortices, he reverted in the early 1700s to the idea that some sort of material medium, or ether, caused gravity. But Newton's ether was no longer a Cartesian-type ether acting solely by impacts among particles. The ether had to be extremely rare so it would not obstruct the motions of the planets, and yet very elastic or springy so it could push large masses toward one another. Newton postulated that the new ether consisted of particles endowed with very powerful short-range repulsive forces. His unrecognized ideas on forces and ether deeply influenced later natural philosophers in the 18th century when they turned to the phenomena of chemistry, electricity and magnetism, and physiology. With the publication of the Principia, Newton was recognized as the leading natural philosopher of the age, but his creative career was effectively over. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 1693, he retired from research to seek a government position in

London. In 1696 he became Warden of the Royal Mint and in 1699 its Master, an extremely lucrative position. He oversaw the great English recoinage of the 1690s and pursued counterfeiters with ferocity. In 1703 he was elected president of the Royal Society and was reelected each year until his death. He was knighted (1708) by Queen Anne, the first scientist to be so honored for his work. Newton died in London on Mar. 31, 1727, (N.S.; Mar. 20, O.S.), having singlehandedly completed the scientific revolution and molded much of the content and the image of modern science.

Pascal, Blaise

The French thinker, mathematician, and scientist Blaise Pascal, b. June 19, 1623, d. Aug. 19, 1662, has been credited not only with imaginative and subtle work in geometry and other branches of mathematics, but with profoundly influencing later generations of theologians and philosophers. A prodigy in mathematics, Pascal had mastered Euclid's Elements (see EUCLID) by the age of 12. Pascal invented and sold the first calculating machine (1645). His study of hydrostatics led to his invention of the syringe and hydraulic press. In 1647, a few years after publishing Essay pour les coniques (Essay on Conic Sections), based on the methods of Gerard Desargues, he suddenly abandoned the study of mathematics. Because of his chronically poor health, he had been advised to seek diversions from study and attempted for a time to live in Paris in a deliberately frivolous manner. His later interest in PROBABILITY theory has been attributed to his interest in calculating the odds involved in the various gambling games he played during this period.

At the end of 1654, after several months of intense depression, Pascal had a religious experience that altered his life. He entered the Jansenist monastery at Port-Royal, although he did not take orders. He never published in his own name again. The Jansenists encouraged him in his mathematical studies, which he resumed. To assist them in their struggles against the Jesuits, he wrote, under a pseudonym, a defense of the famous Jansenist Antoine Arnauld, in the form of 18 epistles. Known as Lettres provinciales, they were likely responsible for the subsequent reputation of the Jesuits as hypocritical and casuistic. In 1658 he broke with the Jansenists and left the monastery. He continued mathematical study and worked on calculus and on probability theory with Pierre de Fermat. Pascal died at the age of 39 in intense pain after a malignant growth in his stomach spread to the brain. His most famous work is the Pensees (Thoughts), a set of deeply personal meditations in somewhat fragmented form on human suffering and faith in God. "Pascal's wager" expresses the conviction that belief in God is rational: if God does not exist, one stands to lose nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing.

Pythagoras of Samos

Pythagoras of Samos, c.560-c.480 BC, was a Greek philosopher and religious leader who was responsible for important developments in the history of mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music. He migrated to Croton and founded a philosophical and religious school there that attracted many followers. Because no reliable contemporary records

survive, and because the school practiced both secrecy and communalism, the contributions of Pythagoras himself and those of his followers cannot be distinguished. Pythagoreans believed that all relations could be reduced to number relations ("all things are numbers"). This generalization stemmed from certain observations in music, mathematics, and astronomy. The Pythagoreans noticed that vibrating strings produce harmonious tones when the ratios of the lengths of the strings are whole numbers, and that these ratios could be extended to other instruments. They knew, as did the Egyptians before them, that any triangle whose sides were in the ratio 3:4:5 was a right-angled triangle. The so-called Pythagorean theorem, that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, may have been known in Babylonia, where Pythagoras traveled in his youth; the Pythagoreans, however, are usually credited with the first proof of this theorem. In astronomy, the Pythagoreans were well aware of the periodic numerical relations of heavenly bodies. The CELESTIAL SPHERES of the planets were thought to produce a harmony called the music of the spheres. Pythagoreans believed that the earth itself was in motion. The most important discovery of this school--which upset Greek mathematics, as well as the Pythagoreans' own belief that whole numbers and their ratios could account for geometrical properties--was the incommensurability of the diagonal of a square with its side. This result showed the existence of IRRATIONAL NUMBERS. Whereas much of the Pythagorean doctrine that has survived consists of numerology and number mysticism, the influence of the idea that the world can be understood through mathematics was extremely important to the development of science and mathematics.

History topic: A history of Zero

One of the commonest questions which the readers of this archive ask is: Who discovered zero? Why then have we not written an article on zero as one of the first in the archive? The reason is basically because of the difficulty of answering the question in a satisfactory form. If someone had come up with the concept of zero which everyone then saw as a brilliant innovation to enter mathematics from that time on, the question would have a satisfactory answer even if we did not know which genius invented it. The historical record, however, shows quite a different path towards the concept. Zero makes shadowy appearances only to vanish again almost as if mathematicians were searching for it yet did not recognise its fundamental significance even when they saw it. The first thing to say about zero is that there are two uses of zero which are both extremely important but are somewhat different. One use is as an empty place indicator in our place-value number system. Hence in a number like 2106 the zero is used so that the positions of the 2 and 1 are correct. Clearly 216 means something quite different. The second use of zero is as a number itself in the form we use it as 0. There are also different aspects of zero within these two uses,

namely the concept, the notation, and the name. (Our name "zero" derives ultimately from the Arabic sifr which also gives us the word "cipher".) Neither of the above uses has an easily described history. It just did not happen that someone invented the ideas, and then everyone started to use them. Also it is fair to say that the number zero is far from an intuitive concept. Mathematical problems started as 'real' problems rather than abstract problems. Numbers in early historical times were thought of much more concretely than the abstract concepts which are our numbers today. There are giant mental leaps from 5 horses to 5 "things" and then to the abstract idea of "five". If ancient peoples solved a problem about how many horses a farmer needed then the problem was not going to have 0 or -23 as an answer. One might think that once a place-value number system came into existence then the 0 as an empty place indicator is a necessary idea, yet the Babylonians had a place-value number system without this feature for over 1000 years. Moreover there is absolutely no evidence that the Babylonians felt that there was any problem with the ambiguity which existed. Remarkably, original texts survive from the era of Babylonian mathematics. The Babylonians wrote on tablets of unbaked clay, using cuneiform writing. The symbols were pressed into soft clay tablets with the slanted edge of a stylus and so had a wedge-shaped appearance (and hence the name cuneiform). Many tablets from around 1700 BC survive and we can read the original texts. Of course their notation for numbers was quite different from ours (and not based on 10 but on 60) but to translate into our notation they would not distinguish between 2106 and 216 (the context would have to show which was intended). It was not until around 400 BC that the Babylonians put two wedge symbols into the place where we would put zero to indicate which was meant, 216 or 21 '' 6. The two wedges were not the only notation used, however, and on a tablet found at Kish, an ancient Mesopotamian city located east of Babylon in what is today south-central Iraq, a different notation is used. This tablet, thought to date from around 700 BC, uses three hooks to denote an empty place in the positional notation. Other tablets dated from around the same time use a single hook for an empty place. There is one common feature to this use of different marks to denote an empty position. This is the fact that it never occured at the end of the digits but always between two digits. So although we find 21 '' 6 we never find 216 ''. One has to assume that the older feeling that the context was sufficient to indicate which was intended still applied in these cases. If this reference to context appears silly then it is worth noting that we still use context to interpret numbers today. If I take a bus to a nearby town and ask what the fare is then I know that the answer "It's three fifty" means three pounds fifty pence. Yet if the same answer is given to the question about the cost of a flight from Edinburgh to New York then I know that three hundred and fifty pounds is what is intended. We can see from this that the early use of zero to denote an empty place is not really the use of zero as a number at all, merely the use of some type of punctuation mark so that the numbers had the correct interpretation. Now the ancient Greeks began their contributions to mathematics around the time that zero as an empty place indicator was coming into use in Babylonian mathematics. The Greeks however did not adopt a positional number system. It is worth thinking just how significant this fact is. How could the brilliant mathematical advances of the Greeks not see them adopt a number system with all the advantages that the Babylonian place-value system possessed? The real answer to this question is more subtle than the simple answer that we are about to give, but basically the Greek

mathematical achievements were based on geometry. Although Euclid's Elements contains a book on number theory, it is based on geometry. In other words Greek mathematicians did not need to name their numbers since they worked with numbers as lengths of lines. Numbers which required to be named for records were used by merchants, not mathematicians, and hence no clever notation was needed. Now there were exceptions to what we have just stated. The exceptions were the mathematicians who were involved in recording astronomical data. Here we find the first use of the symbol which we recognise today as the notation for zero, for Greek astronomers began to use the symbol O. There are many theories why this particular notation was used. Some historians favour the explanation that it is omicron, the first letter of the Greek word for nothing namely "ouden". Neugebauer, however, dismisses this explanation since the Greeks already used omicron as a number - it represented 70 (the Greek number system was based on their alphabet). Other explanations offered include the fact that it stands for "obol", a coin of almost no value, and that it arises when counters were used for counting on a sand board. The suggestion here is that when a counter was removed to leave an empty column it left a depression in the sand which looked like O. Ptolemy in the Almagest written around 130 AD uses the Babylonian sexagesimal system together with the empty place holder O. By this time Ptolemy is using the symbol both between digits and at the end of a number and one might be tempted to believe that at least zero as an empty place holder had firmly arrived. This, however, is far from what happened. Only a few exceptional astronomers used the notation and it would fall out of use several more times before finally establishing itself. The idea of the zero place (certainly not thought of as a number by Ptolemy who still considered it as a sort of punctuation mark) makes its next appearance in Indian mathematics. The scene now moves to India where it is fair to say the numerals and number system was born which have evolved into the highly sophisticated ones we use today. Of course that is not to say that the Indian system did not owe something to earlier systems and many historians of mathematics believe that the Indian use of zero evolved from its use by Greek astronomers. As well as some historians who seem to want to play down the contribution of the Indians in a most unreasonable way, there are also those who make claims about the Indian invention of zero which seem to go far too far. For example Mukherjee in [6] claims:... the mathematical conception of zero ... was also present in the spiritual form from 17 000 years back in India. What is certain is that by around 650AD the use of zero as a number came into Indian mathematics. The Indians also used a place-value system and zero was used to denote an empty place. In fact there is evidence of an empty place holder in positional numbers from as early as 200AD in India but some historians dismiss these as later forgeries. Let us examine this latter use first since it continues the development described above. In around 500AD Aryabhata devised a number system which has no zero yet was a positional system. He used the word "kha" for position and it would be used later as the name for zero. There is evidence that a dot had been used in earlier Indian manuscripts to denote an empty place in positional notation. It is interesting that the same documents sometimes also used a dot to denote an unknown where we might use x. Later Indian mathematicians had names for zero in

positional numbers yet had no symbol for it. The first record of the Indian use of zero which is dated and agreed by all to be genuine was written in 876. We have an inscription on a stone tablet which contains a date which translates to 876. The inscription concerns the town of Gwalior, 400 km south of Delhi, where they planted a garden 187 by 270 hastas which would produce enough flowers to allow 50 garlands per day to be given to the local temple. Both of the numbers 270 and 50 are denoted almost as they appear today although the 0 is smaller and slightly raised. We now come to considering the first appearance of zero as a number. Let us first note that it is not in any sense a natural candidate for a number. From early times numbers are words which refer to collections of objects. Certainly the idea of number became more and more abstract and this abstraction then makes possible the consideration of zero and negative numbers which do not arise as properties of collections of objects. Of course the problem which arises when one tries to consider zero and negatives as numbers is how they interact in regard to the operations of arithmetic, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In three important books the Indian mathematicians Brahmagupta, Mahavira and Bhaskara tried to answer these questions. Brahmagupta attempted to give the rules for arithmetic involving zero and negative numbers in the seventh century. He explained that given a number then if you subtract it from itself you obtain zero. He gave the following rules for addition which involve zero:The sum of zero and a negative number is negative, the sum of a positive number and zero is positive, the sum of zero and zero is zero. Subtraction is a little harder:A negative number subtracted from zero is positive, a positive number subtracted from zero is negative, zero subtracted from a negative number is negative, zero subtracted from a positive number is positive, zero subtracted from zero is zero. Brahmagupta then says that any number when multiplied by zero is zero but struggles when it comes to division:A positive or negative number when divided by zero is a fraction with the zero as denominator. Zero divided by a negative or positive number is either zero or is expressed as a fraction with zero as numerator and the finite quantity as denominator. Zero divided by zero is zero. Really Brahmagupta is saying very little when he suggests that n divided by zero is n/0. Clearly he is struggling here. He is certainly wrong when he then claims that zero divided by zero is zero. However it is a brilliant attempt from the first person that we know who tried to extend arithmetic to negative numbers and zero. In 830, around 200 years after Brahmagupta wrote his masterpiece, Mahavira wrote Ganita Sara Samgraha which was designed as an updating of Brahmagupta's book. He correctly states that:... a number multiplied by zero is zero, and a number remains the same when zero is subtracted from it.

However his attempts to improve on Brahmagupta's statements on dividing by zero seem to lead him into error. He writes:A number remains unchanged when divided by zero. Since this is clearly incorrect my use of the words "seem to lead him into error" might be seen as confusing. The reason for this phrase is that some commentators on Mahavira have tried to find excuses for his incorrect statement. Bhaskara wrote over 500 years after Brahmagupta. Despite the passage of time he is still struggling to explain division by zero. He writes:A quantity divided by zero becomes a fraction the denominator of which is zero. This fraction is termed an infinite quantity. In this quantity consisting of that which has zero for its divisor, there is no alteration, though many may be inserted or extracted; as no change takes place in the infinite and immutable God when worlds are created or destroyed, though numerous orders of beings are absorbed or put forth. So Bhaskara tried to solve the problem by writing n/0 = . At first sight we might be tempted to believe that Bhaskara has it correct, but of course he does not. If this were true then 0 times must be equal to every number n, so all numbers are equal. The Indian mathematicians could not bring themselves to the point of admitting that one could not divide by zero. Bhaskara did correctly state other properties of zero, however, such as 0 2 = 0, and 0 = 0. Perhaps we should note at this point that there was another civilisation which developed a placevalue number system with a zero. This was the Maya people who lived in central America, occupying the area which today is southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize. This was an old civilisation but flourished particularly between 250 and 900. We know that by 665 they used a place-value number system to base 20 with a symbol for zero. However their use of zero goes back further than this and was in use before they introduced the place-valued number system. This is a remarkable achievement but sadly did not influence other peoples. The brilliant work of the Indian mathematicians was transmitted to the Islamic and Arabic mathematicians further west. It came at an early stage for al-Khwarizmi wrote Al'Khwarizmi on the Hindu Art of Reckoning which describes the Indian place-value system of numerals based on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. This work was the first in what is now Iraq to use zero as a place holder in positional base notation. Ibn Ezra, in the 12th century, wrote three treatises on numbers which helped to bring the Indian symbols and ideas of decimal fractions to the attention of some of the learned people in Europe. The Book of the Number describes the decimal system for integers with place values from left to right. In this work ibn Ezra uses zero which he calls galgal (meaning wheel or circle). Slightly later in the 12th century al-Samawal was writing:If we subtract a positive number from zero the same negative number remains. ... if we subtract a negative number from zero the same positive number remains. The Indian ideas spread east to China as well as west to the Islamic countries. In 1247 the Chinese mathematician Ch'in Chiu-Shao wrote Mathematical treatise in nine sections which uses the symbol O for zero. A little later, in 1303, Zhu Shijie wrote Jade mirror of the four elements which again uses the symbol O for zero.

Fibonacci was one of the main people to bring these new ideas about the number system to Europe. As the authors of [12] write:An important link between the Hindu-Arabic number system and the European mathematics is the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. In Liber Abaci he described the nine Indian symbols together with the sign 0 for Europeans in around 1200 but it was not widely used for a long time after that. It is significant that Fibonacci is not bold enough to treat 0 in the same way as the other numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 since he speaks of the "sign" zero while the other symbols he speaks of as numbers. Although clearly bringing the Indian numerals to Europe was of major importance we can see that in his treatment of zero he did not reach the sophistication of the Indians Brahmagupta, Mahavira and Bhaskara nor of the Arabic and Islamic mathematicians such as al-Samawal. One might have thought that the progress of the number systems in general, and zero in particular, would have been steady from this time on. However, this was far from the case. Cardan solved cubic and quartic equations without using zero. He would have found his work in the 1500's so much easier if he had had a zero but it was not part of his mathematics. By the 1600's zero began to come into widespread use but still only after encountering a lot of resistance. Of course there are still signs of the problems caused by zero. Recently many people throughout the world celebrated the new millennium on 1 January 2000. Of course they celebrated the passing of only 1999 years since when the calendar was set up no year zero was specified. Although one might forgive the original error, it is a little surprising that most people seemed unable to understand why the third millennium and the 21st century begin on 1 January 2001. Zero is still causing problems!

What use is maths in everyday life?

"Maths is all around us, it's everywhere we go". It's a lyric that could so easily have been sung by Wet Wet Wet. It may not have made it onto the Four Weddings soundtrack, but it certainly would have been profoundly true. Not only does maths underlie every process and pattern that occurs in the world around us, but having a good understanding of it will help enormously in everyday life. Being quick at mental arithmetic will save you pounds in the supermarket, and a knowledge of statistics will help you see through the baloney in television adverts or newspaper articles, and to understand the torrent of information you'll hear about your local football team.

Maths in Nature
Simple maths equations turn up whereever you look in the everyday world around you.

The spherical shape of a soap bubble; The gentle sag of the clothes line in the back garden; Ripples on the surface of a pond; The sun's path across the sky, or star trails around the Pole Star; Thrown cricket balls or water jetting out from a hosepipe.

In this last example, every falling object follows a parabolathe quadratic equation that you learn about at A-level. When you throw a ball to a friend, your brain is solving in milliseconds exactly the same equation for which artillery men in the Second World War had books listing thousands of solutions. If you look a little deeper, you can discover the maths behind more complicated things, like the spiral of seeds on a sunflower, the fractal pattern of snowflakes or broccoli florets, the pattern of stripes on a zebra or the chaotic swirling of a hurricane. Maths has been used to explain how we tie knots in our shoelaces, and why you could never tie a knot in four dimensions. Every kind of music, from Handel to hip-hop, has a deep mathematical pattern to it. Some scientists believe that it is this very structure that our brains latch on to, which explains why we enjoy listening to music with a good rhythm or catchy tune. The same is probably true for the things we find visually beautiful, which explains why maths is often used in art.

Man-made maths
Structural engineers make extensive use of maths when designing buildings. The strengths and forces must be carefully balanced, for everything from a small bungalow to the breath-taking feat of a Manhattan skyscraper, or the 2km-long Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in Japan, or the elegant domes of the Eden Project in Cornwall. Some are even designed to illustrate mathematical functions, such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, USA. This stunning monument towers almost 200m above the Mississippi river, and was built to follow the catenary curvethe same curve made by a chain sagging under its own weight. The communication satellites orbiting high over out heads that let us watch Sky television channels or make phone calls to Australia were put there by maths. The action in video games, like a racing car accelerating round a corner, is only possible because the computer is solving hundreds of equations a second to simulate how the car should behave and what graphics to

display on the screen. The insurance we buy before going on holiday is calculated by mathematicians, and the modern drugs we take when we fall ill are only available because statistics have shown them to be effective and safe.

Maths helping our lives

Not only is the beauty of maths everywhere around us, but having an understanding of it helps enormously in day-to-day life. Have you ever been to the supermarket and not known whether it is cheaper to buy one kind of pasta, at 79p for 500 grams, say, or a 750 gram bag of another brand at 1.15? Being able to do some simple mental arithmetic would help here. An article in the Sunday Times in June 2004 revealed the fact that you can't even assume that buying larger bags of exactly the same pasta would work out cheaper. It said that in many of the supermarkets buying in bulk, for example picking up a six-pack of beer rather than six single cans, was in fact more expensive. The newspaper found that the difference can be as much as 30%. The supermarket chains may be exploiting the assumption people have that buying in bulk is cheaper, but if you work it out quickly in your head you'll never be caught out.

Spotting dodgy statistics

There are other areas of life when people might be deliberately trying to mislead you. Statistics are often used in adverts to try and convince you to buy a product. They may make a claim that sounds really impressive, but if you think about it a little you sometimes realise that they're only giving half the facts, or have phrased something very carefully so that it sounds better than it actually is. How many adverts have you heard that make some claim such as "8 out of 10 women prefer our shampoo to their old one"? Did those enthusiasts think it was greatly better, or not really much of a difference? What about the other 20%? They might have absolutely hated it because it made all their hair fall out! And what question were they answering: that they really believe it made their hair any cleaner than a different shampoo, or that they preferred the smell, or shape of the bottle?

An advert for a popular breakfast cereal featured a well-known sportsman claiming that 9 out of 10 people with a healthy heart eat such-and-such a cereal. You immediately think that their cereal must be healthier for you, but that isn't what the sentence means at all. It's logically equivalent to saying that "9 out of 10 people with brown eyes like ice cream". This of course doesn't imply that eating ice cream somehow causes you to have brown eyes. It's an example of a strong correlation that does not mean causationit could just be a coincidence. There may even be a third factor that was not noticed which explains both. For example, it is well known that shoe size correlates with reading ability. There's nothing mysterious here, it's simply that older children tend to have grown bigger feet and also to have had more practice at reading. It certainly doesn't mean that big feet somehow cause the improvement in readingit would be insane to initiate a national program for increasing literacy by stretching everybody's feet. This correlation/causation error is exactly the kind of problem that medical researchers need to watch out for. An understanding of statistics will help you see through ambiguous statements like these made on adverts.