Math Heroes Throughout History

Make education relateable, interesting, and fun.

Math Heroes Throughout History
By Wendy Petti

Mathematics did not drop from the sky. We know that, of course…but do our students? How much richer an appreciation our students might have for mathematics as a living science if we share with them the budding of new ideas in math heroes past and present! It all begins with "I wonder…."

For instance, when our students use coordinate geometry, we can tell them that the idea of joining algebra and geometry in this way is said to have come to René Descartes one day in 1637 as he lay in bed wondering how to describe the path of a fly on the ceiling. His work on analytic geometry was one small part of a larger quest for truth launched with the famous words, "I think, therefore I am," meaning that he could be sure of only one thing -- his own existence -- as he began systematically questioning all existing knowledge.

If we ask our students to imagine a world without 0, such as the long-ago Western world that relied on Roman numerals or an abacus to do calculations, we can thank Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci, who learned the calculating methods of the local merchants wherever he went in his extensive travels. In his first book, published in 1200 and revised in 1228, Fibonacci strongly advocated that the ancient Hindu-Arab system of numbers be adopted in the West. After being met with initial skepticism, eventually that book became the standard math text for more than 200 years.

That's nothing compared to Euclid's Elements, that, in pulling together the best work of the Greek mathematicians and presenting a model of logical reasoning, became the standard geometry text for more than 2,000 years!

Students also might enjoy hearing stories of such child prodigies as Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), who as a 3-year-old corrected a bookkeeping error of his father's, and as a youth astounded a teacher by almost instantly finding a creative solution to a long and tedious arithmetic task.

Students might benefit from hearing stories of creativity mixed with tenacity, such as the 350-year quest to solve Fermat's Last Theorem, achieved at last by Andrew J. Wiles in 1994, after eight years of intensive and creative work building on pivotal contributions by others.

Students also might be intrigued by quirky anecdotes, such as the MacTutor History of Mathematics account of Abraham DeMoivre, who "is famed for predicting the day of his own death. He found that he was sleeping 15 minutes longer each night and summing the arithmetic progression, calculated that he would die on the day that he slept for 24 hours. He was right!"

Although math heroes are plentiful, there have not been many print or online accounts written for elementary grades, and collections of mathematical biographies are not exactly abundant in local bookstores and libraries.

As you and your students dip into some of the resources recommended here (with some caveats), you might consider how to take an active role in investigating math heroes:

* What is a math hero? Does it take a new mathematical discovery to be a math hero or can a math hero be someone who uses known math in creative ways?
* Adopt a math hero. Perhaps each student could learn about one math hero for sharing with the class or a larger audience. The activity could be a wonderful class or collaborative project to develop a new online collection of lively, kid-friendly math biographies.
* Promote math heroes. Ask your local library to order some of the books recommended below. Ask your local bookstore to stock some in the section of biographies for children. Ask your library or bookstore if they would sponsor a "math hero" day.

Perhaps if we join with our students to help share these inspirational stories, we can be math heroes of sorts, too!