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EUDOXUS OF KNIDUS

Eudoxus was born in 408 BCE to an impoverished family in Knidus, Asia Minor. Because of his family’s low socioeconomic status, he would have had no chance at a successful life if it weren’t for his powerful mathematical skills. As a young adult, Eudoxus heard about Plato’s Academy and borrowed money to travel there. Many of the philosophers at the Academy ignored the young man, but Plato recognized his genius and supported him in his mathematical pursuits. There was no remuneration for membership in the esteemed Academy, and Eudoxus had so little money that he could not afford to live with the other members in Athens. He was forced to rent a small room in the nearby city of Piraeus, where rents were low and basic food could be obtained inexpensively. He commuted daily to Athens to attend the discussions at the Academy. Eventually, after having proved several major theorems in geometry that no one had been able to tackle, Eudoxus earned the respect of the other philosophers. Thanks in p

PLATO

The Greek philosopher Plato (428–348 BCE) was born just a year after the infamous plague. He was not a mathematician, but he believed that mathematics was the study of truth. To emphasize this view, Plato placed a sign over the gate of his Academy in Athens: LET NO ONE IGNORANT OF GEOMETRY ENTER HERE! Plato thus became known as the maker of mathematicians, and he encouraged many geometers and algebraists to join what would later be considered the first center of philosophy and knowledge in the world. Mathematicians of ancient Greece knew that there were five, and only five, regular solids . These are three-dimensional geometrical objects whose faces are all identical to one another. The solids that satisfy this requirement are the cube, the tetrahedron (triangle-based pyramid), the octahedron, the icosahedron, and the dodecahedron. Plato admired the discovery and ascribed much importance to these solids; so they became known as the Platonic solids. The Greeks associated the five soli

PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS

Pythagoras of Samos (ca. 580–500 BCE) was a great Greek mathematician. As a young man, he was coached by the aging Thales, and he would continue the Greek quest to turn the mathematics of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and early Indians from a practical computational discipline into a beautiful, abstract philosophy. It was Pythagoras who gave us the ubiquitous Pythagorean theorem, which allows us to determine the length of a right triangle’s hypotenuse. Today GPS and maps use this theorem—as well as our very early understanding of numbers and of geometry—to compute distances between two locations. Pythagoras was born on the Greek island of Samos, a stone’s throw from the Anatolian Plateau of Asia Minor, which at that time was also part of greater Greece. The island is home to the Temple of Hera, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (although, unlike the almost-intact Great Pyramid, this temple has only one marble column still standing). Today the main town on the island is call

THALES OF MILETUS

Mathematics as we know it today, with theorems and proofs, began with the great Greek mathematician Thales of Miletus (ca. 624–548 BCE). Miletus was among the first free city-states within the larger Greek empire, which spanned much of the eastern Mediterranean from Anatolia to the south of Italy and Egypt, including the islands in between. Lying on the coast of Anatolia, Miletus was one of the oldest and most prosperous Greek settlements of the time. Thales is often called the first philosopher. He is also known for his famous saying “Know thyself,” which was even engraved on the stone entrance to the cave of the Oracle of Delphi, a sacred site where the Greeks sought counsel from their gods. Additionally, Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece, though according to the historian Plutarch, he surpassed the others. In his book on Solon, another of the Seven Sages, Plutarch says this about Thales: “He was apparently the only one of these whose wisdom stepped, in speculation, beyo

APPLICATION OF PERCENTAGE | REAL LIFE MATHEMATICS

You may probably know that - “ A percentage is a fraction with a denominator of 100. A percentage may be expressed using the term itself, such as 25 percent, or using the % symbol, as in 25%.” But have you ever thought what could be the real life applications of Percentage? The calculation of various kinds of rates by way of percentages is the backbone of a wide range of mathematical applications, including taxes, restaurant tips, bank interest, academic grades, population growth, and sports statistics. The better understanding of a multitude of everyday concepts and activities will be determined, directly or indirectly, by an appreciation of the ability to perform the percentage calculation. Percentages play a key role in the following areas: 1.) Voting patterns and election results: Percentages are used to take the large numbers of persons who may vote in an election, and reduce the figures to a result that is often easier to understand. 2.) Automobile performance: Octane is a t

MEDICAL APPLICATIONS OF VOLUME | REAL LIFE MATH

As you probably know “An object’s volume describes the amount of space it contains”. But, have you ever thought what could be the practical applications of volume? In medicine, volume measurements are used to characterize brain damage, lung function, sexual maturity, anemia, body fat percentage, and many other aspects of health. A few of these uses of volume are described below. 1.) Brain Damage from Alcohol Using modern medical imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), doctors can take three-dimensional digital pictures of organs inside the body, including the brain. Computers can then measure the volumes of different parts of the brain from these digital pictures, using geometry and calculus to calculate volumes from raw image data. MRI volume studies show that many parts of the brain shrink over time in people who are addicted to alcohol. The frontal lobes—the wrinkled part of the brain surface that is just behind the forehead—are strongly affected. It is t

BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF PRIME NUMBERS | REAL LIFE MATHEMATICS

As you probably know “ A number having exactly two factors (one is the unity and another is the number itself), is called A Prime Number. But, have you ever thought what could be the Real Life Applications of Prime Numbers? Here is the Biological Application of Prime Numbers. Plant-eating insects called cicadas spend a lot of their life underground in one form, before emerging as adults. In some types (species) of cicada, this appearance occurs at the same time for all the adults in the region, every 13 or 17 years. 13 and 17 are prime numbers. Coincidence? Scientists who have studied the species of cicadas do not think so. Rather, they think, the use of a prime number for the life cycle has been a response to the pressure put on cicada population by other creatures who utilize them as food . In other words, the cicadas are the prey and the creatures lying in wait when they emerge to the surface are the predators. Researchers have used mathematical ways to model the so-called preda