Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) was a prolific Swiss mathe- found wide applications in

matician and the son of a vicar. Legends tell of Leonhard the design of computers.
Euler’s distress at being unable to mathematically prove the
existence of God. Many mathematicians of his time consid-
ered mathematics a tool to decipher God’s design and codes.
Although he was a devout Christian all his life, he could not
The value of puzzles. “It is a
wholesome plan, in thinking
find the enthusiasm for the study of theology, compared to that
about logic, to stock the mind
of mathematics. He was completely blind for the last seven-
with as many puzzles as pos-
teen years of his life, during which time he produced roughly
sible, since these serve much
half of his total output.
the same purpose as is served
Euler is responsible for our common, modern-day use of
by experiments in physical
many famous mathematical notations—for example, f(x) for a
science” (Bertrand Russell,
function, e for the base of natural logs, i for the square root of
Mind, 1905).
–1, π for pi, Σ for summation. He tested Pierre de Fermat’s
conjecture that numbers of the form 2n + 1 were always prime
if n is a power of 2. Euler verified this for n = 1, 2, 4, 8, and
16, and showed that the next case 232 + 1 = 4,294,967, 297 = A mathematical nomad.
641 × 6,700,417, and so is not prime. What legendary mathemati-
cian, and one of the most
prolific mathematicians in
history, was so devoted to
George Boole (1815–1864), or algebraic form. . . . It is
math that he lived as a nomad
an Englishman, was a logi- impossible to separate
with no home and no job?
cian and an algebraist. Like Boole’s religious beliefs
Sexual contact revolted him;
Ramanujan and other mysti- from his mathematics.”
even an accidental touch by
cal mathematicians, Boole Boole often spoke of his
anyone made him feel uncom-
had “mystical” experiences. almost photographic mem-
fortable. (See Answer 1.9.)
David Noble, in his book The ory, describing it as “an
Religion of Technology, arrangement of the mind for
notes, “The thought flashed every fact and idea, which I
upon him suddenly as he was can find at once, as if it were Marin Mersenne (1588–
walking across a field that his in a well-ordered set of 1648) was another mathe-
ambition in life was to drawers.” matician who was deeply
explain the logic of human Boole died at age forty- religious. Mersenne, a
thought and to delve analyti- nine, after his wife mistak- Frenchman, was a theologian,
cally into the spiritual enly thought that tossing a philosopher, a number theo-
aspects of man’s nature buckets of water on him and rist, a priest, and a monk. He
[through] the expression of his bed would cure his flu. argued that God’s majesty
logical relations in symbolic Today, Boolean algebra has would not be diminished had

18 A Passion for Mathematics