BOOLEAN ALGEBRA, in which he used letters to represent
statements that may be true or false, and which is the
foundation of the math necessary for the creation of telephone
switches and computers.Brahmagupta (Bhillamalacarya) (ca. 598–670) India’s most revered
mathematician, Brahmagupta had many firsts in the study of
algebra. He invented ZERO. He was the first to use algebra in
astronomy, and he calculated solar and lunar eclipses and
planetary motion. Brahmagupta created many mathematical
rules for such ideas as negative and POSITIVE NUMBERs,
multiplying using a place-value system, defining SQUARE
ROOTs, the sum of SQUAREs, the sum of cubes, and solving
indeterminate QUADRATIC EQUATIONs. He was also the first to
give the formula for the AREAof a cyclic QUADRILATERAL,
now called Brahmagupta’s THEOREM.Briggs, Henry(1561–1630) British mathematician responsible for
improving JOHNNAPIER’sLOGARITHMs, credited with assigning
the VALUEof log 1 = 0, although he claims it was Napier’s idea,
and responsible for publishing a table of logarithms, Arithmetica
Logarithmica,for the NATURAL NUMBERs 1 to 20,000 and
90,000 to 100,000. This table was completed by Adriaan Vlacq
and published after his death as Trigonometria Britannica.Brouncker, Viscount William (ca. 1620–84) Irish mathematician who
entered Oxford University at the age of 16, earned a doctorate in
medicine nine years later, became the first president of the Royal
Society of London, and made contributions to mathematics
through his work on LOGARITHMs, the quadrature of the
HYPERBOLA, and CONTINUED FRACTIONs, as well as musical
theory using algebra and logarithms. Through a case of mistaken
identity, Euler named an EQUATIONcreated by Brouncker for the
wrong person, and it is instead called Pell’s equation.Cardan, Girolamo (Jerome Cardan, Girolamo Cardano)
(1501–76) A colorful Italian physician, astronomer, inventor,
writer, and mathematician, Cardan grew up assisting his father
who tutored Leonardo da Vinci in geometry. Cardano wrote
more than 200 pieces on a variety of topics, his most important
work being his contributions to algebra. He was the first to
publish on the topic of PROBABILITY, which he knew firsthandBIOGRAPHIES Brahmagupta – Cardan
BIOGRAPHIES Brahmagupta – Cardan