Thanks to the Apple

        The journey of Du Sautoy continues to Northern Italy. He first visited the museum where the masterpiece of Pierrodela Francesca is found. It was during the renaissance period where the talents of Pierro flourished He had a monument of his own due to France valuing mathematics dearly. It was said that he became a very good painter because of his knowledge about mathematics. The painting known as his masterpiece is the Flagellation of Christ. The amazing thing about the painting is that it appears three-dimensional though it was painted one-dimensionally. This explains how a certain perspective can cause a mathematical revolution. He had a monument of his own due to France valuing mathematics dearly.

            Another well-known mathematician is Rene Descartes because of the Cartesian plane. It was kind of funny because for him, the best location to meditate is the bed (because for me, it doesn’t work that way).  He tried to build Philosophy with Math. Since he lived at the time when the Catholic Church had such strong power, he thinks that it would not approve his idea; he then moved to Holland and lived in the town of Leiden. He was the one who proposed to link algebra and geometry.

            Du Sautoy’s journey continued to a Parisian monk, Pierre de Fermat. By day he was a magistrate and by night, he does all his Mathematics. He founded several laws of prime numbers. The Mathematics of Italy continues to develop as well as its rival, Britain. One of the significant events during the 17^th century is the falling of the apple. Isaac Newton is well-known by his physics. His father died while he was a child and when his mother remarried, he hated his stepfather too much. I have a funny thought that this could be the reason he loved to sit under the tree, where the very famous apple fell. We all know that he proposed the concept of gravity. Aside from that, he was also the proponent of calculus. Coincidentally, another mathematician by the name of Gottfried Leibniz also proposed his own math, differential and integral calculus. This is when problems arose in the Royal Society. The thing is, Newton chose not to publish his works and his math is very hard to practice and understand. For some mathematicians, Newton’s math was still very messy compared to that of Leibniz. Leibniz was able to make practical calculating machines with the binary system. Unfortunately, Leibniz was accused plagiarism by the Royal Society. Newton died famous and known for his math, but Leibniz got depressed and died in 1716 not given that much of acknowledgement.

            A family of mathematicians (amazing, genes was passed on) known as Bernoulli Dynasty were followers of Leibniz’s math. They were originally merchants and there were some internal disputes in the family. Another mathematician is Euler, father of topology. He popularized the usage of pi. He is also considered the Mozart of Math because he also found time to make a law about songs.

            Karl Friedrich Gauss invented new ways of handling equations known as modular arithmetic. Another mathematician, Bernhard Riemann, studied fold existing in a multi-dimensional space.