Assignment I Math for Poets 2007

Read a number of biographies of the mathematicians listed below. They can be found on the St.Andrews History of Mathematics site. Below are a number of suggestions, but of course you are free to chose any other one.

• Ancient:
  • Archimede
  • Euclid
  • Hypatia of Alexandria
• Middle Ages:
  • Al-Khwarizmi
• 17th century
  • Descartes
  • Pascal
  • Fermat
  • Newton
• 18/19th century
• Euler
• Gauss
• Riemann
• Galois
• Sonja Kovalevskaja
• Ada Lovelace
• 19/20th century
• Hilbert
• Brouwer
• Ramanujan
• Erdös
• Wiles

Select one of the biographies and find additional literature. Write a summary of it in 1 or 2 pages A4 IN YOUR OWN WORDS. While reading the biographies you may encounter mathematical details that you do not understand. Ignore them and focus on the person behind the math. Indicate which additional material (references!) you read and why you have selected your particular mathematician.