Tartaglia, Nicholas (Niccolo Fontana, Niccolo Fontana of Brescia)
(1499–1557) Italian mathematician most noted for his infamous
battle with GIROLAMO CARDANand Cardan’s student LODOVICO
FERRARIover the origin of the SOLUTIONfor the CUBIC
EQUATION. As a 13-year-old, Tartaglia was a victim of the French
army’s siege on Brescia, in which his father was murdered in a
church, and Tartaglia’s skull was split open in three places, his
jaw and palate sliced open with a sword, and he was left for dead.
Nursed back to life by his mother, he was left with a permanent
speech impediment, and became called Tartaglia, which means
“the stammerer.” Tartaglia taught himself to read and write, and
lived in such poverty that in the absence of paper he used
tombstones as chalkboards to do his lessons. He eventually
became a mathematics teacher in Venice, and wrote several
important works, including Nova Scienze,dealing with gravity
and falling bodies and the efficiency of projectiles, Inventioni,on
cubic equations, Trattato de numeri e misuri,on arithmetic, and a
treatise on COEFFICIENTs, numbers, and mercantile arithmetic
with algebraic formulas. Tartaglia’s scandal occurred when he
gave his formula for solving QUARTICequations to Cardan under
the promise that they would never be revealed. Cardan broke the
promise, and a public battle ensued between Tartaglia and Ferrari
when Tartaglia wrote a book, New Problems and Inventions,in
which he attacked Cardan. Unfortunately for him, a public debate
in 1548 between the two resulted in Tartaglia’s humiliation and
quick departure, which proved Ferrari as the victor and left
Tartaglia disgraced, unable to keep his job, and seriously in debt.
Tartaglia was the first to write an Italian translation of Euclid’s
Elements,and is now acknowledged as the cocreator with Cardan
of the solution of the cubic equation.Taussky-T odd, Olga(1906–95) This Austrian mathematician
dedicated her career to algebraic number theory and matrix
theory. She left Europe in 1938 in an escape from the Nazi
regime. Inspired by AMALIE NOETHERto pursue the field of
algebraic systems, she wrote nearly 300 papers during her
career. Taussky-Todd’s work is credited as having inspired
research by hundreds of people in matrix theory and computer
science. She was a recipient of Austria’s highest award, the
Cross of Honor, and is considered a pioneer in the field of
computer applications.BIOGRAPHIES Tartaglia – Taussky-Todd
BIOGRAPHIES Tartaglia – Taussky-Todd