Abel, Niels Henrik (1802–29) Norwegian who, in the words of
mathematician Charles Hermite, left the mathematical world
“enough to keep them busy for 500 years,” at the time of his
death at the age of 27. Abel is most known for his work on
elliptic functions, and for his PROOFof a quintic EQUATION, in
which he shows that, unlike POLYNOMIALs of lower degrees,
any polynomial of the fifth degree (or higher) cannot be solved
in terms of radicals.
Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (al-Basri, al-Misri, Alhazen)
(ca. 965–1040) Arab mathematician who made great
contributions to the field of optics, and worked in mathematics on
geometry, astronomy, and number theory. He purportedly wrote
more than 90 works, of which more than 55 still exist, including
an autobiography. Much of his scientific work supposedly
occurred when he pretended to be insane, so he would be
confined to his house and able to avoid the Caliph, whom he felt
was potentially dangerous. His work on number theory includes
some of the earliest examples of congruence theories. He became
interested in science after reading the work of Aristotle.
Agnesi, Maria Gaëtana(1718–99) Italian scholar who learned
several languages, including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, by the
age of nine, and at the age of 20 began a project combining her
knowledge of language with her devotion to math. Ten years
later she published a two-volume work, Analytical Institutions
(Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana),which
was valued as the most precisely ordered and largest
compilation of the work of the world’s greatest mathematicians.
One piece in the book involved the discussion of a cubic curve
called la versoria(meaning “rope that turns a sail”). In an
1801 publication, this was mistakenly translated into English
as l’aversier a,which means “witch,” and has ever since been
known as the “Witch of Agnesi.”
Alembert, Jean Le Rond d’(1717–83) French mathematician, and
later philosopher, named after the church where his mother left
him as an illegitimate newborn child, d’Alembert spent a
lifetime surrounded by controversy for his argumentative
behavior and self-righteousness. He used his attitude to argue
his mathematical ideas, including improving on SIR ISAAC
NEWTONregarding the conservation of kinetic energy, and his
Abel – Alembert BIOGRAPHIES
Abel – Alembert BIOGRAPHIES