If you ask people these days to name a famous mathematician, surveys show the most popular answer to be Albert Einstein. Einstein himself used to like to quote Sir Isaac Newton's famous humble line "If I have seen further than other men, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
So I asked myself, who were these giants, i.e. famous pre-Einstein mathematicians. Here's the list of the top 100 or so, sorted chronologically. How many do you know? That means you can state what they were famous for, off the cuff, no googling!
If you score below 30 you need to do some revision :-)
Ahmes c. 1650 B C Pythagoras c.540 BC Hippocrates c.440 BC (that's Hippocrates of Chios, NOT the physician who lived around the same time). Plato c.430-c.349 BC Hippias c.425 BC Theaetetus c.417-369 BC Archytas c.400 B C Xenocrates 396-314 BC Theodorus c.390 BC Aristotle 384-322 BC Menaechmus c.350 BC Euclid c.300 BC Archimedes c.287-212 BC Nicomedes c.240 BC Eratosthenes c.230 BC Diocles c. 180 B C Hipparchus c. 180-e. 125 B C Heron of Alexandria c.75 Ptolemy c.85-c.165 Nicomachus of Gerasa C.100 Theon of Smyrna c. 125 Diophantus Ist or 3 rd century Pappus c.320 Iamblichus c.325 Proclus 410-485 Tsu Ch'ung-Chi 430-501 Brahmagupta c.628 Al-Khwarizmi c.825 Thabit ibn Qurra 836-901 Mahavira c.850 Bhaskara 1114-c.1185 Leonardo of Pisa, called Fibonacci c. 1 170-after 1240 al-Banna, Ibn 1256-1321 Chu Shih-chieh c. 1303 Pacioli, Fra Luca c.1445-1517 Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519 Dürer, Albrecht 1471-1528 Stifel, Michael 1486/7-1567 Tartaglia, Niccolo c.1500-1557 Cardano, Girolamo (also known as Cardan) 1501-1576 Recorde, Robert c.1510-1558 Ferrari, Ludovico 1522-1565 Viete, Francois 1540-1603 Ceulen, Ludolph van 1540-1610 Stevin, Simon 1548-1620 Napier, John 1550-1617 Cataldi, Pietro Antonio 1552-1626 Briggs, Henry 1561-1630 Kepler, Johannes 1571-1630 Oughtred, William c.1574-1660 Bachet, Claude-Gaspar, de Meziriac 1581-1638 Mersenne, Marin 1588-1648 Girard, Albert c.1590-c.1633 Desargues, Girard 1591-1661 Descartes, Rene 1596-1650 Fermat, Pierre de 1601-1665 Brouncker, Lord William c.1620-1684 Pascal, Blaise 1623-1662 Huygens, Christian 1628-1695 Newton, Isaac 1642-1727 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm 1646-1716 Bernoulli, Johann 1667-1748 Machin, John 1680-1751 Bernoulli, Nikolaus 1687-1759 Goldbach, Christian 1690-1764 Stirling, James 1692-1770 Euler, Leonhard 1707-1783 Buffon, Count Georges 1707-1788 Lambert, Johann 1728-1777 Lagrange, Joseph Louis 1736-1813 Wilson, John 1741-1793 Wessel, Caspar 1745-1818 Laplace, Pierre Simon de 1749-1827 Legendre, Adrien Marie 1752-1833 Nieuwland, Pieter 1764-1794 Ruffini, Paolo 1765-1822 Argand, Jean Robert 1768-1822 Gauss, Karl Friedrich 1777-1855 Brianchon, Charles c.1783-1864 Binet, Jacques-Philippe-Marie 1786-1856 Möbius, August Ferdinand 1790-1868 Babbage, Charles 1792-1871 Laine, Gabriel 1795-1870 Steiner, Jakob 1796-1863 de Morgan, Augustus 1806-1871 Liouville, Joseph 1809-1882 Shanks, William 1812-1882 Catalan, Eugene Charles 1814-1894 Hermite, Charles 1822-1901 Riemann, Bemard 1826-1866 Venn, John 1834-1923 Lucas, Edouard 1842-1891 Cantor, George 1845-1918 Lindemann, Ferdinand 1852-1939 Hilbert, David 1862-1943 Lehmer, D. N. 1867-1938 Hardy, G. H. 1877-1947 Ramanujan, Srinivasa 1887-1920
Now go visit my blog please, or look at other interesting maths stuff :-)
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