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Brilliant

Math History

via Brilliant

Overview

This course recounts both stories and specific, mathematical challenges from the lives and research of about a dozen famous—and infamous—mathematicians.

All of them made huge mistakes. Many of them struggled to get recognition for some of their best work. And they all died with unanswered questions, many of which we still don't know the answers to. Every single one left behind an astounding mathematical legacy.
People from every part of the world and in every century of history have advanced the frontiers of mathematics. The five journeys we'll stick with the longest are those of Nichomachus, Brahmagupta, Al-Khwarismi, Gerolamo Cardano, and Ada Lovelace. The stories of both their lives and research are intriguing and inspiring.

Meet some of these people who mapped what we know of the world of mathematics, explore alongside them, and learn from both their success and their failures!

Syllabus

  • Introduction: Explore breakthroughs made by several ancient cultures describing, executing, and analyzing calculation algorithms.
    • Mathematical Stories: Math is built up from beautiful patterns – and each one has many stories.
    • Rectangle by Squaring: Trust us, you're spoiled by base-10. Not everyone was so lucky.
    • Egyptian Multiplication: Egyptian mutliplication proceeds in surprisingly efficient ways.
    • The Prime Sieve: Prime numbers are nearly as mysterious today as they were 2000 years ago.
  • Perfecting Patterns: Learn about a fascinating branch of number theory alongside an ancient Greek mathematician who was obsessed with these ideas.
    • Nicomachus: He was an active member in a cult of math and numbers – sound like anyone you know?
    • Even Patterns: The powers of two organize themselves into pleasing arrangements.
    • Perfect Numbers: Some numbers have too many divisors. Some don't have enough. But other numbers are just perfect.
    • Mersenne Primes: Explore the connection between perfect numbers and a special kind of prime.

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