Samantha Swaby
Mathematics
11/11/08
Famous Mathematicians
Name of Mathematician: Isaac Newton
England
Place of birth: Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire,
Date of Birth: December 31, 1642
Name of Mathematician: Maria Agnesi
Place of birth: Milan
Date of birth: May 16, 1718
Three events in Isaac Newton’s life:
1. When he was three his mother married a wealthy elderly clergyman from
the next village, and she went to go live there, leaving him behind with his
grandmother.
2. In 1664, he was elected scholar, guaranteeing four years of financial
support.
3. Unfortunately, Newton’s university closed because of a plague that was
spreading. During the two years he had spent at home he focused on
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Samantha Swaby
Mathematics
11/11/08
math and physics problems. He then wrote that he first understood the
theory of gravitation and optics.
Three events in Maria Agnesi’s life:
1. The unfortunate death of her mother.
2. After the success of one of her works, Maria was elected to the Bologna
Academy of Sciences.
3. In her teens, Maria took part in mathematics seminars that were in her
house.
Three accomplishments in Mathematics during Isaac Newton’s life:
1. Newton’s first major public scientific achievement was the invention,
design and construction of a reflecting telescope.
2. Newton realizes that the moon’s circular path around the earth could be
caused in this way by the same gravitational force that would hold such a
cannonball in a low orbit, in other words, the same force that causes
bodies to fall.
3. He finally understands both integral and differential calculus and infinite
series.
Three accomplishments in Mathematics during Maria Agnesi’s life:
1. In 1738 she published a collection of complex essays on natural science
and philosophy called Propositiones Philosophicae.
2. By the age of twenty, she began working on her most important work,
Analytical Institutions, dealing with differential and integral calculus.
3. When her best book, Analyical Institutions, was published it brought the
works of various mathematicians together in a very systematic way with
her own interpretations.
Three facts of interest about Isaac Newton:
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Samantha Swaby
Mathematics
11/11/08
1. At age seventeen he was supposed to come home and look at their
farm. It turns out that he was a total failure as a farmer.
2. In the later 1670’s, he became interested in theology. He studied
Hebrew scholarship and ancient and modern theologians at great
length.
3. When he left Cambridge for London, he was appointed Master of
Mint. There he was knighted by the queen.
Three facts of interest about Maria Agnesi:
1. Out of 21 children Maria was the oldest.
2. She spoke French by age five and had mastered Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, and several modern languages by age nine.
3. Maria was shy in nature and did not like the meetings that her father
held in their house.
Sources:
Maria Agnesi:
1. http://www.agnesscott.edu/Lriddle/WOMEN/agnesi.htm
2.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/sciencemath1/a/maria_agnesi.htm
l
Isaac Newton:
1. http://wwwgroups.dcs.stand.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Newton.html
2. http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/newton.html
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