MATHAMATICS

PROJECT
Topic: History Of
Mathematicians

Name: Dhanush Srinivas

School: Delhi Public School East
Class: XII
Section: ‘D’
Aryabhata

Aryabhata was one of the great mathematicians and

astronomers from the classical era in India. In fact, he is
considered to be the first great mathematician in a long
line of visionary mathematicians who would emerge from
India from the classical era onward. His published
works were many years ahead of their time and
a significant amount of modern mathematics and
astronomy can be traced back to the studies
and works associated with him.
  Early Life and Education

Aryabhata was born around 475 A.D. in the region known as

Ashmaka. Historians cannot be completely sure when he was
born, but one of his works notes it was written around 3,600
years into the Kali Yuga, so a rough estimation about the time in
which he was born can be ascertained. It is really not even known
were for sure he was born as Ashmaka. It might be considered a
nickname of sorts for Maharashtra or Dhaka.

The remaining historical records from the era piece together a

hypothesis about his advanced level education taking place at
Kusumapura and that he lived in this area for quite some time.
There is some speculation that Kusumapura is actually another
region and may really be Pataliputra, which was actually the
location of where a major astronomical observatory was located.
  The Works of Aryabhata

Aryabhata is known for one very great work and this would be
the Aryabhatiya. This was one of the many treatises he would
write during his lifetime. Unfortunately, not all of what he had
written still exists. A number of his works have been lost and
historians can only speculate as to what might have been the
great value of their content.

The Aryabhatiya was a well-constructed work that covered many

different facets of mathematics and astronomy. Portions of the
work were quoted in other works and this has allowed it to avoid
becoming lost. Within the mathematics portion of the work, a
great deal was written about high level math topics such as plane
trigonometry and spherical trigonometry, along with sections on
arithmetic, quadratic equations, and algebra.
 There are 108 verses in the text and the style of writing is very
tight and direct. It can be said the work is written in a manner
not dissimilar from the sutra literature crafted at the time.
Within the work, information is revealed about the table of sines,
progressions in geometry and arithmetic, the relationship of
time, the positions of the planets, and insights into celestial
spheres. To a great extent, the work was many years ahead of its
time. Both thought-provoking and introspection inducing,
anyone interested in the subjects of math and astronomy would
find it worth reading.
  His Works:
 Mathematical Work
Aryabhata wrote many mathematical and astronomical treatises.
His chief work was the ‘Ayrabhatiya’ which was a compilation of
mathematics and astronomy. The name of this treatise was not
given to it by Aryabhata but by later commentators. A disciple by
him called the ‘Bhaskara’ names it ‘Ashmakatanra’ meaning
‘treatise from the Ashmaka’. This treatise is also referred to as
‘Ayra-shatas-ashta’ which translates to ‘Aryabhata’s 108’. This is
a very literal name because the treatise did in fact consist of 108
verses. It covers several branches of mathematics such as algebra,
arithmetic, plane and spherical trigonometry. Also included in it
are theories on continued fractions, sum of power series, sine
tables and quadratic equations.
Aryabhata worked on the place value system using letters to
signify numbers and stating qualities. He also came up with an
approximation of pi (π) and area of a triangle. He introduced the
concept of sine in his work called ‘Ardha-jya’ which is translated
as ‘half-chord’.
 Astronomical Work
Aryabhata also did a considerable amount of work in astronomy.
He knew that the earth is rotating on an axis around the sun
and the moon rotated around it. He also discovered the position
of nine planets and stated that these also revolved around the
sun. He pointed out the eclipses; both lunar and solar.
Aryabhata stated the correct number of days in a year that is
365. He was the first person to mention that the earth was not
flat but in fact a spherical shape. He also gave the circumference
and diameter of the 9 planets.
 Heliocentrism
Aryabhata advocated an astronomical model in which the Earth
turns on its own axis. His model also gave corrections (the śīgra
anomaly) for the speeds of the planets in the sky in terms of the
mean speed of the sun.
Aryabhata’s calculations were based on an underlying
heliocentric model, in which the planets orbit the Sun, though
this has been rebutted.
 Sidereal Periods
Considered in modern English units of time, Aryabhata
calculated the sidereal rotation as 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1
seconds; whereas the modern value is 23:56.4.091. Similarly, his
value for the length of the sidereal year at 365 days, 6 hours, 12
minutes, and 30 seconds is an error of 3 minutes and 20 seconds
over the length of a year .
  Last Days of Aryabhata

Aryabhata is believed to have died around 550 A.D. He has left

an amazing legacy to be sure. A great many modern
mathematicians and astronomers look towards his early work
for inspiration.
Ramanujan

 Srinivasa Ramanujan:,
Born December 22, 1887, Tamil Nadu India, the Indian
mathematician whose contributions to the theory of
numbers include pioneering discoveries of the properties of
the partition function.
  Contribution to Mathematics
His chief contribution in mathematics lies mainly in analysis,
game theory and infinite series. He made in depth analysis in
order to solve various mathematical problems by bringing to
light new and novel ideas that gave impetus to progress of game
theory. Such was his mathematical genius that he discovered his
own theorems. It was because of his keen insight and natural
intelligence that he came up with infinite series for π.

This series made up the basis of certain algorithms that are used
today. One such remarkable instance is when he solved the
bivariate problem of his roommate at spur of moment with a
novel answer that solved the whole class of problems through
continued fraction. Besides that he also led to draw some
formerly unknown identities such as by linking coefficients of
and providing identities for hyperbolic secant. He also described
in detail the mock theta function, a concept of mock modular
form in mathematics. Initially, this concept remained an enigma
but now it has been identified as holomorphic parts of maass
forms. His numerous assertions in mathematics or concepts
opened up new vistas of mathematical research for instance his
conjecture of size of tau function that has distinct modular form
in theory of modular forms. His papers became an inspiration
with later mathematicians such as G. N. Watson, B. M. Wilson
and Bruce Berndt to explore what Ramanujan discovered and to
refine his work. In recognition of his achievements, his birth date
22 December is celebrated in India as Mathematics Day. It would
not be wrong to assume that he was first Indian mathematician
who gained acknowledgment only because of his innate genius
and talent.
 His Publications
It was after his first publication in the “Journal of the Indian
Mathematical Society” that he gained recognition as genius
mathematician. With collaboration of English mathematician G.
H. Hardy, with whom he came in contact with during his visit to
England, he brought forward his divergent series that later
stimulated research in that given area thus refining the
contribution of Ramanujan. Both also worked on new
asymptotic formula that gave rise to method of analytical
number theory also called as “Circle Method” in mathematics.
It was during his visit to England that he got worldwide
recognition after publication of his mathematical work in
European journals. He also achieved the distinction of becoming
second Indian, who was elected as Fellow of Royal Society of
London in 1918.
 Death
He died on 26 April 1920 at hands of dreadful disease of
tuberculosis. Although he couldn’t get recognition of world at
large but in field of mathematics, his contribution is duly
recognized today.
 Fibonacci

Fibonacci, also called Leonardo Pisano, English Leonardo of Pisa,

original name Leonardo Fibonacci, (born 1170—died after
1240), medieval Italian mathematician who wrote Liber
abaci (“Book of the Abacus”), the first European work on Indian
and Arabian mathematics.
 Life

Little is known about Fibonacci’s life beyond the few facts

given in his mathematical writings. During Fibonacci’s
boyhood his father, Guglielmo, a Pisan merchant, was
appointed consul over the community of Pisan merchants
in the North African port of Bugia (now Bejaïa, Algeria).
Fibonacci was sent to study calculation with an Arab
master. He later went to Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily, and
Provence, where he studied different numerical systems and
methods of calculation.

When Fibonacci’s Liber abaci first appeared, Hindu-Arabic

numerals were known to only a few
European intellectuals through translations of the writings
of the 9th-century Arab mathematician al-Khwārizmī. The
first seven chapters dealt with the notation, explaining the
principle of place value, by which the position of a figure
determines whether it is a unit, 10, 100, and so forth, and
 demonstrating the use of the numerals in arithmetical
operations. The techniques were then applied to such
practical problems as profit margin, barter, money
changing, conversion of weights and measures,
partnerships, and interest. Most of the work was devoted to
speculative mathematics—proportion (represented by
such popular medieval techniques as the Rule of Three and
the Rule of Five, which are rule-of-thumb methods of
finding proportions), the Rule of False Position (a method
by which a problem is worked out by a false assumption,
then corrected by proportion), extraction of roots, and the
properties of numbers, concluding with some geometry and
algebra.
  Fibonacci Sequence
The Fibonacci sequence is a set of numbers that starts with a one
or a zero, followed by a one, and proceeds based on the rule that
each number (called a Fibonacci number) is equal to the sum of
the preceding two numbers. If the Fibonacci sequence is
denoted F (n), where n is the first term in the sequence, the
following equation obtains for n = 0, where the first two terms
are defined as 0 and 1 by convention:

F (0) = 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 ...

In some texts, it is customary to use n = 1. In that case, the first

two terms are defined as 1 and 1 by default, and therefore:

F (1) = 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 ...

The Fibonacci sequence is named for Leonardo Pisano (also

known as Leonardo Pisano or Fibonacci), an Italian
 mathematician who lived from 1170 - 1250. Fibonacci used the
arithmetic series to illustrate a problem based on a pair of
breeding rabbits:

"How many pairs of rabbits will be produced in a year,

beginning with a single pair, if in every month each pair bears a
new pair which becomes productive from the second month on?"
The result can be expressed numerically as: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34
...

Fibonacci numbers are of interest to biologists and physicists

because they are frequently observed in various natural objects
and phenomena. The branching patterns in trees and leaves, for
example, and the distribution of seeds in a raspberry are based
on Fibonacci numbers.
 A Sanskrit grammarian, Pingala, is credited with the first
mention of the sequence of numbers, sometime between the fifth
century B.C. and the second or third century A.D. Since
Fibonacci introduced the series to Western civilization, it has
had a high profile from time to time. In The Da Vinci Code, for
example, the Fibonacci sequence is part of an important clue.
Another application, the Fibonacci poem, is a verse in which the
progression of syllable numbers per line follows Fibonacci's
pattern.

The Fibonacci sequence is related to the golden ratio, a

proportion (roughly 1:1.6) that occurs frequently throughout the
natural world and is applied across many areas of human
endeavor. Both the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio are
used to guide design for architecture, websites and user
interfaces, among other things.
Pythagoras

Pythagoras (571BC- 497 BC) was a Greek philosopher whose

teachings emphasized the immortality and transmigration of the
soul (reincarnation), virtuous, humane behavior toward all living
things, and the concept of “number” as truth in that
mathematics not only cleared the mind but allowed for an
objective comprehension of reality.
  Life & Works
What is known of Pythagoras comes from later writers piecing
together fragments of his life from contemporaries and students.
It is known that Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos,
off Asia Minor, where his ancestors had settled after leaving
Phlius, a city in the northwest Peloponnese, after the
civil war there in 380 BCE. He received a quality education as his
father, Mnesarchus, was a wealthy merchant. He may have
studied in Babylon and in Egypt and possibly had the best Greek
tutors of the time. All of this is speculative, however, as the
information comes from later writers who accepted, uncritically,
what others wrote about him. If there was an authoritative
biography of Pythagoras, or original works by the man himself,
they are long lost.
  Pythagoras theorm

For a right triangle with legs

‘a’ and ‘b’ and ‘c’ hypotenuse ,
𝑎2 + 𝑏 2 = 𝑐 2 (1)

Many different proofs exist for this most

fundamental of all geometric theorems. The
theorem can also be generalized from a
plane triangle to a trirectangular
tetrahedron, in which case it is known as de
Gua's theorem. The various proofs of the
Pythagorean theorem all seem to require application of some
version or consequence of the parallel postulate: proofs by
dissection rely on the complementarity of the acute angles of the
right triangle, proofs by shearing rely on explicit constructions of
parallelograms, proofs by similarity require the existence of non-
congruent similar triangles, and so on (S. Brodie). Based on this
observation, S. Brodie has shown that the parallel postulate is
equivalent to the Pythagorean theorem.

After receiving his brains from the wizard in the 1939 film The
Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow recites the following mangled (and
incorrect) form of the Pythagorean theorem, "The sum of the
square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to
the square root of the remaining side." In the fifth season of the
television program The Simpsons, Homer J. Simpson repeats the
Scarecrow's line (Pickover 2002, p. 341). In the Season 2 episode
"Obsession" (2006) of the television crime drama NUMB3RS,
Charlie's equations while discussing a basketball hoop include
the formula for the Pythagorean theorem.

A clever proof by dissection which reassembles two small squares

into one larger one was given by the Arabian mathematician
Thabit ibn Kurrah (Ogilvy 1994, Frederickson 1997).
  Death of Pythagoras
The Death of Pythagoras is a fascinating story. Pythagoras was
killed by a mob led by a wealthy local nobleman who wanted to
become a member of the Pythagorean Brotherhood but who was
turned down by Pythagoras because he was a self-evident moron.

It was in Croton where Pythagoras had a Brotherhood. When the

moronic nobleman named Kylon was rejected by Pythagoras, he
influenced lots of local people and created mobs. Those went to
burn the houses of the Pythagorean Brotherhood.
 Certificate
This is to certify Dhanush Srinivas of class XII-D
has successfully completed the project on

‘History Of Mathematicians’
In the session 2019-20.
It is also certified that this is the individual work
of the candidate and has carried out with full
devotion and hard work.

Deepa Ma’am
Mathematics Teacher
Delhi Public School East
Bangaluru
 Index
S.no Name of Page.no
Mathematicians
1. aryabatta 1
2. ramanujan 9
3. fibonacci 14
4. pythagoras 20
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to express my
humble gratitude to Mrs Deepa
Ma’am, my Mathematics
Teacher for giving me this
opportunity to work on this
project on the topic ‘History Of
Mathematicians ’, for her vital
support and encouragement
during the session.