HISTORY OF

MATHEMATI
CS

Felisilda, Angelou Watson

BSED- 1A (MATH)
 INDIAN MATHEMATICS
 Despite developing quite independently of Chinese (and
probably also of Babylonian mathematics), some very
advanced mathematical discoveries were made at a very
early time in India.
 As early as the 8th Century BCE, long before Pythagoras, a
text known as the “Sulba Sutras” (or "Sulva Sutras") listed
several simple Pythagorean triples, as well as a statement
of the simplified Pythagorean theorem for the sides of a
square and for a rectangle (indeed, it seems quite likely
that Pythagoras  learned his basic geometry from the
"Sulba Sutras"). The Sutras also contain geometric solutions
of linear and quadratic equations in a single unknown, and
give a remarkably accurate figure for the square root of 2,
obtained by adding 1 + 1⁄3 + 1⁄(3 x 4) - 1⁄(3 x 4 x 34),
which yields a value of 1.4142156, correct to 5 decimal
places.
THE EVOLUTION OF HINDU-ARABIC NUMERAL
 Like the Chinese, the Indians early discovered the benefits of a
decimal place value number system, and were certainly using it
before about the 3rd Century CE. They refined and perfected the
system, particularly the written representation of the numerals,
creating the ancestors of the nine numerals that (thanks to its
dissemination by medieval Arabic mathematicans) we use across
the world today, sometimes considered one of the greatest
intellectual innovations of all time.

 The Indians were also responsible for another hugely important

development in mathematics. The earliest recorded usage of a
circle character for the number zero is usually attributed to a 9th
Century engraving in a temple in Gwalior in central India. But the
brilliant conceptual leap to include zero as a number in its own
right (rather than merely as a placeholder, a blank or empty
space within a number, as it had been treated until that time) is
usually credited to the 7th Century Indian
mathematicians Brahmagupta - or possibly another Indian,
Bhaskara I - even though it may well have been in practical use
for centuries before that. The use of zero as a number which
could be used in calculations and mathematical investigations,
THE EARLIEST USE OF A CIRCLE CHARACTER FOR THE NUMBER
ZERO WAS IN INDIA
 Golden Age Indian mathematicians made fundamental advances
in the theory of trigonometry, a method of linking geometry and
numbers first developed by the Greeks. They used ideas like the
sine, cosine and tangent functions (which relate the angles of a
triangle to the relative lengths of its sides) to survey the land
around them, navigate the seas and even chart the heavens. For
instance, Indian astronomers used trigonometry to calculate the
relative distances between the Earth and the Moon and the Earth
and the Sun. They realized that, when the Moon is half full and
directly opposite the Sun, then the Sun, Moon and Earth form a
right angled triangle, and were able to accurately measure the
angle as 1⁄7°. Their sine tables gave a ratio for the sides of such a
triangle as 400:1, indicating that the Sun is 400 times further
away from the Earth than the Moon.
 Although the Greeks had been able to calculate the sine function
of some angles, the Indian astronomers wanted to be able to
calculate the sine function of any given angle. A text called the
“Surya Siddhanta”, by unknown authors and dating from around
400 CE, contains the roots of modern trigonometry, including the
first real use of sines, cosines, inverse sines, tangents and
INDIAN ASTRONOMERS USED TRIGONOMETRY TABLES TO ESTIMATE
THE RELATIVE DISTANCE OF THE EARTH TO THE SUN AND MOON
ARYABHATA
 Is the great Indian mathematician and astronomer, as
early as the 6th Century CE produced categorical
definitions of sine, cosine, versine and inverse sine,
and specified complete sine and versine tables, in
3.75° intervals from 0° to 90°, to an accuracy of 4
decimal places. 
 He also demonstrated solutions to simultaneous
quadratic equations, and produced an approximation
for the value of π equivalent to 3.1416, correct to
four decimal places. He used this to estimate the
circumference of the Earth, arriving at a figure of
24,835 miles, only 70 miles off its true value. But,
perhaps even more astonishing, he seems to have
been aware that π is an irrational number, and that
any calculation can only ever be an approximation,
something not proved in Europe until 1761.
BHASKARA II
 who lived in the 12th Century, was one of the most
accomplished of all India’s great mathematicians.
He is credited with explaining the previously
misunderstood operation of division by zero. He
noticed that dividing one into two pieces yields a
half, so 1 ÷ 1⁄2 = 2. Similarly, 1 ÷ 1⁄3 = 3. So,
dividing 1 by smaller and smaller factions yields a
larger and larger number of pieces. Ultimately,
therefore, dividing one into pieces of zero size
would yield infinitely many pieces, indicating that
1 ÷ 0 = ∞ (the symbol for infinity).
 He also made important contributions to many
different areas of mathematics from solutions of
quadratic, cubic and quartic equations (including
negative and irrational solutions) to solutions of
Diophantine equations of the second order to
preliminary concepts of infinitesimal calculus and
mathematical analysis to spherical trigonometry
and other aspects of trigonometry. Some of his
findings predate similar discoveries in Europe by
several centuries, and he made important
contributions in terms of the systemization of
(then) current knowledge and improved methods
for known solutions.
ILLUSTRATION OF INFINITY AS THE RECIPROCAL
OF ZERO
MADHAVA OF SANGAMAGRAMA
 He founded The Kerala School of Astronomy and
Mathematics in the late 14th Century.
 He sometimes called the greatest mathematician-
astronomer of medieval India.
 Although almost all of Madhava's original work is
lost, he is referred to in the work of later Kerala
mathematicians as the source for several infinite
series expansions (including the sine, cosine,
tangent and arctangent functions and the value
of π), representing the first steps from the
traditional finite processes of algebra to
considerations of the infinite, with its implications
for the future development of calculus and
mathematical analysis.
 Unlike most previous cultures, which had been rather
nervous about the concept of infinity, Madhava was
more than happy to play around with infinity,
particularly infinite series. He showed how, although
one can be approximated by adding a half plus a
quarter plus an eighth plus a sixteenth, etc, (as even
the ancient Egyptians and Greeks had known), the exact
total of one can only be achieved by adding up
infinitely many fractions.
 But Madhava went further and linked the idea of an
infinite series with geometry and trigonometry. He
realized that, by successively adding and subtracting
different odd number fractions to infinity, he could
home in on an exact formula for π (this was two
centuries before Leibniz was to come to the same
conclusion in Europe). Through his application of this
series, Madhava obtained a value for π correct to an
astonishing 13 decimal places.
MADHAVA’S METHOD FOR APPROXIMATING Π BY AN INFINITE
SERIES OF FRACTIONS
 Madhava’s use of infinite series to approximate a range of
trigonometric functions, which were further developed by
his successors at the Kerala School, effectively laid the
foundations for the later development of calculus and
analysis, and either he or his disciples developed an early
form of integration for simple functions. Some historians
have suggested that Madhava's work, through the writings
of the Kerala School, may have been transmitted to Europe
via Jesuit missionaries and traders who were active around
the ancient port of Cochin (Kochi) at the time, and may
have had an influence on later European developments in
calculus.
 Among his other contributions, Madhava discovered the
solutions of some transcendental equations by a process of
iteration, and found approximations for some
transcendental numbers by continued fractions. In
astronomy, he discovered a procedure to determine the
positions of the Moon every 36 minutes, and methods to
estimate the motions of the planets.
BRAHMAGUPTA
 The great 7th Century Indian mathematician and
astronomer Brahmagupta wrote some important works on
both mathematics and astronomy. He was from the state
of Rajasthan of northwest India (he is often referred to as
Bhillamalacarya, the teacher from Bhillamala), and later
became the head of the astronomical observatory at
Ujjain in central India. Most of his works are composed in
elliptic verse, a common practice in Indian mathematics
at the time, and consequently have something of a poetic
ring to them.
 It seems likely that Brahmagupta's works, especially his
most famous text, the “Brahmasphutasiddhanta”, were
brought by the 8th Century Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur to
his newly founded centre of learning at Baghdad on the
banks of the Tigris, providing an important link between
Indian mathematics and astronomy and the nascent
upsurge in science and mathematics in the Islamic world.
BRAHMAGUPTA
(598–668 CE)
 In his work on arithmetic, Brahmagupta explained
how to find the cube and cube-root of an integer and
gave rules facilitating the computation of squares and
square roots. He also gave rules for dealing with five
types of combinations of fractions. He gave the sum
of the squares of the first nnatural numbers as n(n + 1)
(2n + 1)⁄ 6 and the sum of the cubes of the first nnatural

numbers as (n(n + 1)⁄2)².

 Brahmagupta’s genius, though, came in his treatment
of the concept of (then relatively new) the number
zero. Although often also attributed to the 7th
Century Indian mathematician Bhaskara I, his
“Brahmasphutasiddhanta” is probably the earliest
known text to treat zero as a number in its own right,
rather than as simply a placeholder digit as was done
by the Babylonians, or as a symbol for a lack of
quantity as was done by the Greeks and Romans.
 Brahmagupta established the basic mathematical
rules for dealing with zero (1 + 0 = 1; 1 - 0 = 1; and
1 x 0 = 0), although his understanding of division by
zero was incomplete (he thought that 1 ÷ 0 = 0).
Almost 500 years later, in the 12th Century,
another Indian mathematician, Bhaskara II, showed
that the answer should be infinity, not zero (on the
grounds that 1 can be divided into an infinite
number of pieces of size zero), an answer that was
considered correct for centuries. However, this
logic does not explain why 2 ÷ 0, 7 ÷ 0, etc, should
also be zero - the modern view is that a number
divided by zero is actually "undefined" (i.e. it
doesn't make sense).
BRAHMAGUPTA’S RULES FOR DEALING WITH ZERO AND
NEGATIVE NUMBERS
 He expounded on the rules for dealing with
negative numbers (e.g. a negative times a negative
is a positive, a negative times a positive is a
negative, etc).
 Furthermore, he pointed out, quadratic equations
(of the type x2 + 2 = 11, for example) could in
theory have two possible solutions, one of which
could be negative, because 32 = 9 and -32 = 9. In
addition to his work on solutions to general linear
equations and quadratic equations, Brahmagupta
went yet further by considering systems of
simultaneous equations (set of equations containing
multiple variables), and solving quadratic equations
with two unknowns, something which was not even
considered in the West until a thousand years later,
when Fermat was considering similar problems in
1657
 Brahmagupta even attempted to write down these
rather abstract concepts, using the initials of the
names of colours to represent unknowns in his
equations, one of the earliest intimations of what
we now know as algebra.
 Brahmagupta dedicated a substantial portion of his
work to geometry and trigonometry. He established
√10 (3.162277) as a good practical approximation
for π (3.141593), and gave a formula, now known
as Brahmagupta's Formula, for the area of a cyclic
quadrilateral, as well as a celebrated theorem on
the diagonals of a cyclic quadrilateral, usually
referred to as Brahmagupta's Theorem.
BRAHMAGUPTA’S
THEOREM ON
CYCLIC
QUADRILATERALS
ISLAMIC MATHEMATICS
 The Islamic Empire established across Persia, the
Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Iberia and
parts of India from the 8th Century onwards made
significant contributions towards mathematics.
They were able to draw on and fuse together the
mathematical developments of
both Greece and India.
 One consequence of the Islamic prohibition on
depicting the human form was the extensive use of
complex geometric patterns to decorate their
buildings, raising mathematics to the form of an
art. In fact, over time, Muslim artists discovered all
the different forms of symmetry that can be
depicted on a 2-dimensional surface
SOME EXAMPLES OF
THE COMPLEX
SYMMETRIES USED
IN ISLAMIC TEMPLE
DECORATION
MUHAMMAD AL-KHWARIZMI
 One of the first Directors of the House of Wisdom in
Bagdad in the early 9th Century was an outstanding
Persian mathematician called Muhammad Al-
Khwarizmi. He oversaw the translation of the
major Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomy
works (including those of Brahmagupta) into Arabic,
and produced original work which had a lasting
influence on the advance of Muslim and (after his
works spread to Europe through Latin translations in
the 12th Century) later European mathematics.
 The word “algorithm” is derived from the Latinization
of his name, and the word "algebra" is derived from
the Latinization of "al-jabr", part of the title of his
most famous book, in which he introduced the
fundamental algebraic methods and techniques for
solving equations.
MUHAMMAD AL-
KHWARIZMI
(C.780-850 CE)
 Perhaps his most important contribution to mathematics was
his strong advocacy of the Hindu numerical system, which Al-
Khwarizmi recognized as having the power and efficiency
needed to revolutionize Islamic and Western mathematics.
The Hindu numerals 1 - 9 and 0 - which have since become
known as Hindu-Arabic numerals - were soon adopted by the
entire Islamic world. Later, with translations of Al-
Khwarizmi’s work into Latin by Adelard of Bath and others in
the 12th Century, and with the influence of Fibonacci’s “Liber
Abaci” they would be adopted throughout Europe as well.
 His other important contribution was algebra, a word derived
from the title of a mathematical text he published in about
830 called “Al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa'l-
muqabala” (“The Compendious Book on Calculation by
Completion and Balancing”). He also wanted to go from the
specific problems considered by the Indians and Chinese to a
more general way of analyzing problems, and in doing so he
created an abstract mathematical language which is used
across the world today.
 In particular, Al-Khwarizmi developed a formula for systematically
solving quadratic equations (equations involving unknown numbers to
the power of 2, or x2) by using the methods of completion and
balancing to reduce any equation to one of six standard forms, which
were then solvable. He described the standard forms in terms of
"squares" (what would today be "x2"), "roots" (what would today be "x")
and "numbers" (regular constants, like 42), and identified the six types
as: squares equal roots (ax2 = bx), squares equal number (ax2= c),
roots equal number (bx = c), squares and roots equal number
(ax2 + bx = c), squares and number equal roots (ax2 + c = bx), and roots
and number equal squares (bx + c = ax2).
 Al-Khwarizmi is usually credited with the development of lattice (or
sieve) multiplication method of multiplying large numbers, a method
algorithmically equivalent to long multiplication. His lattice method
was later introduced into Europe by Fibonacci.
 In addition to his work in mathematics, Al-Khwarizmi made important
contributions to astronomy, also largely based on methods from India,
and he developed the first quadrant (an instrument used to determine
time by observations of the Sun or stars), the second most widely used
astronomical instrument during the Middle Ages after the astrolabe.
He also produced a revised and completed version of Ptolemy's
“Geography”, consisting of a list of 2,402 coordinates of cities
throughout the known world.
AN EXAMPLE OF AL-KHWARIZMI’S “COMPLETING THE
SQUARE” METHOD FOR SOLVING QUADRATIC EQUATIONS
MUHAMMAD AL-KARAJI 
 Is the 10th Century Persian mathematician worked
to extend algebra still further, freeing it from its
geometrical heritage, and introduced the theory of
algebraic calculus.
 He was the first to use the method of proof by
mathematical induction to prove his results, by
proving that the first statement in an infinite
sequence of statements is true, and then proving
that, if any one statement in the sequence is true,
then so is the next one.
 Among other things, Al-Karaji used mathematical
induction to prove the binomial theorem. A
binomial is a simple type of algebraic expression
which has just two terms which are operated on
only by addition, subtraction, multiplication and
positive whole-number exponents, such as (x +y)2.
The co-efficients needed when a binomial is
expanded form a symmetrical triangle, usually
referred to as Pascal’s Triangle after the 17th
Century French mathematician Blaise Pascal,
although many other mathematicians had studied it
centuries before him in India,
Persia, China and Italy, including Al-Karaji.
BINOMIAL THEOREM
NASIR AL-DIN AL-TUSI
 Is the 13th Century Persian astronomer, scientist
and mathematician was perhaps the first to treat
trigonometry as a separate mathematical
discipline, distinct from astronomy. Building on
earlier work by Greek mathematicians such as
Menelaus of Alexandria and Indian work on the sine
function, he gave the first extensive exposition of
spherical trigonometry, including listing the six
distinct cases of a right triangle in spherical
trigonometry. One of his major mathematical
contributions was the formulation of the famous
law of sines for plane triangles, a⁄(sin A) = b⁄(sin B) = c⁄
(sin C), although the sine law for spherical triangles
had been discovered earlier by the 10th Century
Persians Abul Wafa Buzjani and Abu Nasr Mansur.
AL-TUSI WAS A PIONEER IN THE FIELD OF
SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY
ARAB THABIT IBN QURRA
 Is the 9th Century Arab, who developed a general
formula by which amicable numbers could be derived,
re-discovered much later by
both Fermat and Descartes(amicable numbers are pairs of
numbers for which the sum of the divisors of one
number equals the other number, e.g. the proper
divisors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and
110, of which the sum is 284; and the proper divisors of
284 are 1, 2, 4, 71, and 142, of which the sum is 220);

ABUL HASAN AL-UQLIDISI

 Is the 10th Century Arab mathematician, who
wrote the earliest surviving text showing the
positional use of Arabic numerals, and particularly
the use of decimals instead of fractions (e.g. 7.375
insead of 73⁄8);
IBRAHIM IBN SINAN
 Is the 10th Century Arab geometer, who
continued Archimedes' investigations of areas and
volumes, as well as on tangents of a circle;

IBN AL-HAYTHAM (ALSO KNOWN AS

ALHAZEN)
 Is the 11th Century Persian who, in addition to his
groundbreaking work on optics and physics,
established the beginnings of the link between algebra
and geometry, and devised what is now known as
"Alhazen's problem" (he was the first mathematician to
derive the formula for the sum of the fourth powers,
using a method that is readily generalizable); 
KAMAL AL-DIN AL-FARISI
 Is the 13th Century Persian, who applied the
theory of conic sections to solve optical problems,
as well as pursuing work in number theory such as
on amicable numbers, factorization and
combinatorial methods;

IBN AL-BANNA AL-MARRAKUSHI

 Is the 13th Century Moroccan, whose works included
topics such as computing square roots and the theory
of continued fractions, as well as the discovery of the
first new pair of amicable numbers since ancient
times (17,296 and 18,416, later re-discovered
by Fermat) and the the first use of algebraic notation
since Brahmagupta.
 MEDIEVAL MATHEMATICS
 During the centuries in which
the Chinese, Indian and Islamic mathematicians had been
in the ascendancy, Europe had fallen into the Dark Ages,
in which science, mathematics and almost all intellectual
endeavour stagnated. Scholastic scholars only valued
studies in the humanities, such as philosophy and
literature, and spent much of their energies quarrelling
over subtle subjects in metaphysics and theology, such as
"How many angels can stand on the point of a needle?“.
 From the 4th to 12th Centuries, European knowledge and
study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music was
limited mainly to Boethius’ translations of some of the
works of ancient Greek masters such as Nicomachus
and Euclid. All trade and calculation was made using the
clumsy and inefficient Roman numeral system, and with
an abacus based on Greek and Roman models.
MEDIEVAL ABACUS, BASED ON THE ROMAN/GREEK
MODEL
FIBONACCI
 The 13th Century Italian Leonardo of Pisa, better
known by his nickname Fibonacci, was perhaps the
most talented Western mathematician of the
Middle Ages.
 In particular, in 1202, he wrote a hugely influential
book called “Liber Abaci” ("Book of Calculation"), in
which he promoted the use of the Hindu-Arabic
numeral system, describing its many benefits for
merchants and mathematicians alike over the
clumsy system of Roman numerals then in use in
Europe.
  The horizontal bar notation for fractions was also
first used in this work (although following
the Arabic practice of placing the fraction to the
left of the integer).
LEONARDO OF
PISA (FIBONACCI)
(C.1170-1250)
 Fibonacci is best known, though, for his introduction into Europe of a
particular number sequence, which has since become known as Fibonacci
Numbers or the Fibonacci Sequence. He discovered the sequence - the first
recursive number sequence known in Europe - while considering a practical
problem in the “Liber Abaci” involving the growth of a hypothetical
population of rabbits based on idealized assumptions. He noted that, after
each monthly generation, the number of pairs of rabbits increased from 1 to
2 to 3 to 5 to 8 to 13, etc, and identified how the sequence progressed by
adding the previous two terms (in mathematical terms, F n = Fn-1 + Fn-2), a
sequence which could in theory extend indefinitely.
 The sequence, which had actually been known to Indian mathematicians
since the 6th Century, has many interesting mathematical properties, and
many of the implications and relationships of the sequence were not
discovered until several centuries after Fibonacci's death. For instance, the
sequence regenerates itself in some surprising ways: every third F-number is
divisible by 2 (F3 = 2), every fourth F-number is divisible by 3 (F 4 = 3), every
fifth F-number is divisible by 5 (F5 = 5), every sixth F-number is divisible by 8
(F6 = 8), every seventh F-number is divisible by 13 (F7 = 13), etc. The
numbers of the sequence has also been found to be ubiquitous in nature:
among other things, many species of flowering plants have numbers of petals
in the Fibonacci Sequence; the spiral arrangements of pineapples occur in 5s
and 8s, those of pinecones in 8s and 13s, and the seeds of sunflower heads in
21s, 34s, 55s or even higher terms in the sequence; etc.
THE DISCOVERY OF THE FAMOUS FIBONACCI SEQUENCE
 In the 1750s, Robert Simson noted that the ratio of each term in the
Fibonacci Sequence to the previous term approaches, with ever greater
accuracy the higher the terms, a ratio of approximately 1 : 1.6180339887
(it is actually an irrational number equal to  (1 + √5)⁄2 which has since been
calculated to thousands of decimal places). This value is referred to as the
Golden Ratio, also known as the Golden Mean, Golden Section, Divine
Proportion, etc, and is usually denoted by the Greek letter phi φ (or
sometimes the capital letter Phi Φ). Essentially, two quantities are in the
Golden Ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity
is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The Golden
Ratio itself has many unique properties, such as  1⁄φ = φ - 1 (0.618...) and
φ2 = φ + 1 (2.618...), and there are countless examples of it to be found
both in nature and in the human world.
 A rectangle with sides in the ratio of 1 : φ is known as a Golden Rectangle,
and many artists and architects throughout history (dating back to
ancient Egypt and Greece, but particularly popular in the Renaissance art
of Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries) have proportioned their
works approximately using the Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangles, which
are widely considered to be innately aesthetically pleasing. An arc
connecting opposite points of ever smaller nested Golden Rectangles forms
a logarithmic spiral, known as a Golden Spiral. The Golden Ratio and
Golden Spiral can also be found in a surprising number of instances in
Nature, from shells to flowers to animal horns to human bodies to storm
systems to complete galaxies.
THE GOLDEN RATIO Φ CAN BE DERIVED FROM
THE FIBONACCI SEQUENCE
 However, the book's influence on medieval mathematics is
undeniable, and it does also include discussions of a number of
other mathematical problems such as the Chinese Remainder
Theorem, perfect numbers and prime numbers, formulas for
arithmetic series and for square pyramidal numbers, Euclidean
geometric proofs, and a study of simultaneous linear equations
along the lines of Diophantus and Al-Karaji. He also described
the lattice (or sieve) multiplication method of multiplying large
numbers, a method - originally pioneered by Islamic
mathematicians like Al-Khwarizmi - algorithmically equivalent
to long multiplication.
 Neither was “Liber Abaci” Fibonacci’s only book, although it
was his most important one. His “Liber Quadratorum” (“The
Book of Squares”), for example, is a book on algebra, published
in 1225 in which appears a statement of what is now called
Fibonacci's identity - sometimes also known as Brahmagupta’s
identity after the much earlier Indian mathematician who also
came to the same conclusions - that the product of two sums of
two squares is itself a sum of two squares e.g. (1 2 + 42)(22 + 72)
= 262 + 152 = 302 + 12.
FIBONACCI INTRODUCED LATTICE MULTIPLICATION
TO EUROPE
NICOLE ORESME
 Is an important (but largely unknown and
underrated) Frenchman mathematician and scholar
of the 14th Century.
 He used a system of rectangular coordinates
centuries before his countryman René Descartes
popularized the idea, as well as perhaps the first
time-speed-distance graph. Also, leading from his
research into musicology, he was the first to use
fractional exponents, and also worked on infinite
series, being the first to prove that the harmonic
series 1⁄1 + 1⁄2 + 1⁄3 + 1⁄4 + 1⁄5... is a divergent
infinite series (i.e. not tending to a limit, other
than infinity).
ORESME WAS ONE OF THE FIRST TO USE GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS
REGIOMONTATUS
 He isthe most capable German scholar mathematician of the 15th
Century, his main contribution to mathematics being in the area of
trigonometry. He helped separate trigonometry from astronomy,
and it was largely through his efforts that trigonometry came to be
considered an independent branch of mathematics. His book "De
Triangulis", in which he described much of the basic trigonometric
knowledge which is now taught in high school and college, was the
first great book on trigonometry to appear in print.

NICHOLAS OF CUSA (OR NICOLAUS

CUSANUS
 Is a 15th Century German philosopher, mathematician and
astronomer, whose prescient ideas on the infinite and the
infinitesimal directly influenced later mathematicians like Gottfried
Leibniz and Georg Cantor. He also held some distinctly non-standard
intuitive ideas about the universe and the Earth's position in it, and
about the elliptical orbits of the planets and relative motion, which
foreshadowed the later discoveries of Copernicus and Kepler.
THANK YOU ………