Sunday 6 January 2013

Background

Refer to pg 3 of your Lecture Notes 01 
Gerolamo Cardano (24th September 1501 -21st September 1576) was an Italian Renaissance Mathematician, physician, astrologer and gambler. He wrote more than 200 works on medicine, mathematics, physics, philosophy, religion, and music. His gambling led him to formulate elementary rules in probability, making him one of the founders of the field.

Today Gerolamo Cardano is best known for his achievements in Algebra.

Find out what he has done and share your findings with your classmates. 

13 comments:

  1. He was the first to describe typhoid fever. In 1553 he cured the Scottish Archbishop of St Andrews of a disease that had left him speechless and was thought incurable. The diplomat Thomas Randolph recorded the "merry tales" rumoured about his methods still current in Edinburgh nine years later.[3] Cardano himself wrote that the Archbishop had been short of breath for ten years, and after the cure was effected by his assistant, he was paid 1,400 gold crowns.(Wikipedia)
    He also played an important role in the development of algebra.He also invented the Cardono's Rings. Cardano invented several mechanical devices including the combination lock, the gimbal consisting of three concentric rings allowing a supported compass or gyroscope to rotate freely, and the Cardan shaft with universal joints, which allows the transmission of rotary motion at various angles and is used in vehicles to this day. He studied hypocycloids, published in de proportionibus 1570. The generating circles of these hypocycloids were later named Cardano circles or cardanic circles and were used for the construction of the first high-speed printing presses. For all he has done maths played a great part in them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wee first one. I forget to add something.He played an important role in the development and the enhancement of mathematics just like other great mathematicians like Albert Einstein.

      Delete
  2. He was known for his achievements in algebra.
    He was also the first mathematician to find a proper use for numbers smaller than 0.
    Also, he recognised the existence of what we now call imaginary numbers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cardan's had made major contributions to algebra which he is well known for.
    He also made important contributions to probability, hydrodynamics, mechanics and geology.
    Cardan was the first to ever touch on the probability theory.
    Cardan is also credied with the invention of the Cardan joint a type of universal joint in a shaft that enables it to rotate when out of alignment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. He was the first to make use of numbers less than zero. He has a book written, which contained the first systematic treatment in probability, and invented the combination lock. He also played a part in the invention of printing presses, by studying hypocyloids, which had generating circles which were later called Cardano circles, and also introduced a cryptographic tool, the Carden grille.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cardano was an inventor, an astrologer, a philosopher and was the first to propound the mathematical theory of probability. He is best known for his achievements in algebra. He was the first mathematician to make systematic use of numbers less than zero. He published the solutions to the cubic and quartic equations and also acknowledged the existence of what are now called imaginary numbers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gerolamo Cardano, being a prolific writer, wrote over 130 works and left another 100 unfinished manuscripts at his death. He is renowned for his invention of the combination lock and the Cardan shaft. The Cardan shaft is a universal joint connecting the gear box to the rear axle of a rear wheel drive. He also correctly identified the cause of illness for the Archbishop of Scotland (feather pillows). Due to his wife contracting syphillis, he wrote one of the earliest medical treatises on this diseases. He also solved a mathematical unknown during that time, known as the cubic equations. In doing so, he contributed greatly to Algebra.

    http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1950.htm

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cardano was one of the first to recognize the existence of the square root of negative numbers, now called imaginary numbers.
    Cardano was the first mathematician to make systematic use of numbers less than zero.
    Cardano also published the first comprehensive solution for finding roots of cubic equations,

    ReplyDelete
  8. He contributed to the first generalized solution to cubic equations and the solution to certain quartic equations. He was one of the first to recognize the existence of the square root of negative numbers, now called imaginary numbers.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cardano argued that the deaf should be taught to write and could do that before learning how to speak. Invented the combination lock. Acknowledged the existence of imaginary numbers.
    Info Research from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerolamo_Cardano#Works

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cardano was the first mathematician to make systematic use of numbers less than zero. He published the solutions to the cubic and quartic equations in his 1545 book Ars Magna. The solution to one particular case of the cubic equation (in modern notation), was communicated to him by Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, and the quartic was solved by Cardano's student Lodovico Ferrari. In his exposition, he acknowledged the existence of what are now called imaginary numbers, although he did not understand their properties (described for the first time by his Italian contemporary Rafael Bombelli, although mathematical field theory was developed centuries later).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Cardano was the first mathematician to make use of negative numbers, as well as one of the first people to recognize the square root of negative numbers now called imaginary numbers. He published the solutions to the cubic and quartic equations.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Cardano was one of the first mathematician to make use of negative numbers,helped to find first generalized solution to cubic equations and the solution to certain quartic equations and he published the solutions to the cubic and quartic equations in his 1545 book Ars Magna.

    ReplyDelete