Everybody is familiar with Pythagoras¿ theorem. And most people have already heard of Archimedes and Gauss to boot. But what did Leonard Euler do that was so special? And who knows the origin of the term ¿algorithm¿? In the Mathematicians¿ Gallery, visitors will meet ten people who have performed pioneering work in the field of numbers. The following masters of mathematics will be represented:
Pythagoras (approx. 570 - approx. 510 BC) Euclid (approx. 365 - approx. 300 BC) Archimedes (approx. 287 - 212 BC) Al-Khwarizmi (approx. 780 - 835/850) Pierre de Fermat (1607 - 1665) Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783) Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 - 1855) Georg Cantor (1845 - 1918) Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887 - 1920) Andrew Wiles (1953 - )
Vignette by Nadia Budde
Carl Friedrich Gauß on a 10 DM bill.
Stamp commemorating the proving of Fermat’s Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles