Harriot, Thomas(1560–1621) British explorer, astronomer, and
mathematician who never published any of his work during his
lifetime. Harriot began his career working for Sir Walter
Raleigh’s expeditions to the New World. Harriot worked on
optics, studied curves and motion, was interested in the theory
for the rainbow, observed and recorded Halley’s comet leading
to the computation of its orbit, made the first observations with
a telescope in England, made the first telescopic drawing of the
Moon, and was the first to discover sunspots and calculate the
Sun’s rotation. He proposed a problem and CONJECTUREto
Johannes Kepler, which he derived from a similar problem
asked of him by Raleigh regarding the densest stacking of
cannonballs, which was not proved until 1998. His
contributions to algebra include SIMPLIFYing algebraic
notation, COMPLETING THE SQUARE, and the invention of
symbols for “greater than” and “less than,” which is sometimes
credited to his book editor.
Hérigone, Pierre (Herigonus)(1580–1643) French mathematician
about whom little is known except for his published work on
elementary mathematics called Cursus Mathematicus,which
he wrote in Latin and French, and which introduced a
complete SETof mathematical symbols. His symbols for
EXPONENTs, a, a2, a3, and so on, were the predecessors to the
ones we use today, a, a^2 , a^3 , and so on, which were
subsequently introduced by RENÉ DESCARTES.
Hermite, Charles(1822–1901) French mathematician known for
having “a kind of positive hatred of geometry,” according to
his student, mathematician Jacques Hadamard, was most
famous for his passion for analysis, which led him to discover
that while an algebraic EQUATIONof the fifth degree could not
be solved in radicals, it could be solved using elliptic
functions. Hermite POLYNOMIALs and Hermite’s differential
equation are among his namesakes for his many contributions
to the science of mathematics, which include elliptic functions,
number theory, and polynomials.
Hipparchus (Hipparchus of Nicaea, of Rhodes, of Bithynia)
(ca. 190–20 B.C.E.) Greek astronomer and mathematician
known as the “lover of truth” for the accuracy of his
calculations, and as the inventor or father of trigonometry.
Harriot – Hipparchus BIOGRAPHIES
Harriot – Hipparchus BIOGRAPHIES