# Greatest Mathematician **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590 "2003-10-10T01:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/1 "2003-10-10T01:23:26Z")
I’m sure Euclid, Archemedes and Newton are in the top 5, but who would you choose as the all time greatest mathematician. A good buddy of mine, a PhD in math, always said he would choose Gauss. ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/2 "2003-10-10T01:28:25Z")
Gauss is the obvious answer. Or, you could just follow Eric Bell: “Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss, these three, are in a class by themselves among the great mathematicians, and it is not for ordinary mortals to attempt to range them in order of merit.” E. T. Bell, _Men of Mathematics_, Ch. 14 ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/3 "2003-10-10T01:29:20Z")
I think I would have to find a place in the top 10 for Cauchy, Riemann and Cantor. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/4 "2003-10-10T02:01:53Z")
For what the world was before him and what the world was after, and what he did to change it, you really can’t hold a candle to Isaac Newton. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/5 "2003-10-10T02:36:37Z")
The problem I always had with Newton was the Libnitz published some of the same ideas at roughly the same time. I always wondered who was the Microsoft and who was the Apple. 🙂 (I suppose from the tales of history Newton had the be the Apple because one fell on his head. Right? HA!!!) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/6 "2003-10-10T03:02:12Z")
I’m not a mathematician, but I would agree that Gauss belongs and we mustn’t forget Leonhard Euler. ---
**Author:** ![Newton\_meter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/57b2e6/32.png) [@Newton\_meter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newton_meter)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/7 "2003-10-10T03:15:01Z")
Newton. Definitely Newton. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/8 "2003-10-10T03:22:58Z")
**ccwaterback** wrote > [@](#): > > The problem I always had with Newton was the Libnitz published some of the same ideas at roughly the same time. I always wondered who was the Microsoft and who was the Apple. One of my favorite books is _The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History_. A very good read; I recommend it. Obviously, there is plenty of debate about who belongs in the book, and in what order, but in general, I agree with their assessments. They put Isaac Newton at the **second** most influential person in the history of the world. Higher than Jesus Christ. Higher than Albert Einstein. And reading their assessment, I have to agree. There’s a small chapter about him; I’ll quote a paragraph: > [@](#): > > What, then, is our assessment of Newton’s scientific importance? If one looks at the index of an encyclopedia of science, one will find more references (perhaps two or three times as many) to Newton and to his laws and discoveries than to any other individual scientist. Furthermore, one should consider what other great scientists have said about Newton. Leibniz, no friend of Sir Isaac’s, and a man with whom he engaged in bitter dispute, wrote: “Taking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time when Newton lived, what he has done is much the better part.” The great French scientist Laplace wrote: “_The Principia_ is preeminent above any other production of human genius.” Lagrange frequently stated that Newton was the greatest genius who ever lived, while Ernst Mach, writing in 1901, said: “All that has been accomplished in mathematics since his day has been a deductive, formal, and mathematical development of mechanics on the basis of Newton’s laws.” This perhaps, is the crux of Newton’s great accomplishment: he found science a hodgepodge of isolated facts and laws, capable of describing some phenomena but of predicting only a few; he left us with a unified system of laws, which were capable of application to an enormous range of physical phenomena, and which could be used to make exact predictions. I agree. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/9 "2003-10-10T03:30:24Z")
If I disagree about Newton, strictly as a mathematician, it is so that some of our mathematicians can straighten things out. Newton was transcendent as a thinker and in applying mathematics to physical problems. However, I do believe that it took mathematicians quite a few years to put the integral calculus on a sound mathematical basis after he and Leibnitz started the ball rolling. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/10 "2003-10-10T03:51:04Z")
I think I would have to agree, Mr. Newton was the greatest scientist of all time. But I was thinking more along the lines of strictly mathematics. We can argue Descartes was the greatest philosopher of all time, and a pretty nifty mathematician too. But as far as pure mathematical accomplishments and revolutionary ideas, I’m not sure Newton would be number one. Let me add, if he isn’t number one, it would be difficult to find someone to beat him out for the number two spot. I was watching a show the other night about Archemedes. The only known copy of his greatest work was discovered somewhere in the Mideast. During the middle ages, a monk ran out of paper so he white-washed Archemedes book and wrote over the pages. They are currently in the processes of restoring what they can of his work. Very interesting. **Bill H.** , I’m curious. Who was the number one most influential person? It wasn’t Jesus? Hmmm … let me think … Copernicus? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/11 "2003-10-10T06:06:57Z")
**ccwaterback** , it was Muhammad. Which struck me as strange the first time I read it, but I’ve come to think it’s a good call. There were a couple reasons he was placed above Jesus. First, he was more directly responsible for Islam than Jesus was for Christianity. Without St. Paul (who likely never even met Jesus), there wouldn’t have been Christianity. St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament. Muhammad on the other hand was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles, plus he played a key role in proselytizing and estabilishing the religious practices and wrote the Koran. (well, dictated it; he was illiterate). Also, he was not just a religious leader, but also a very powerful secular leader. He was the driving force behind the Arab conquests, and even putting aside his religion, these conquests may have placed him as the most influential leader. After reading the book’s rational, I think I agree with his placement. For the record, I’m an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/12 "2003-10-10T06:19:55Z")
Upon reading the thread title, the name that immediately popped in my head was Gauss. I just saw a special on Archemedes, where they have discovered some of his “lost” works. If they had known of these works right after he wrote them, we would be light years ahead of where we are now. He also had thought of the basic framework of calculus. Those are definately the top two. Newton is top 10, but strictly math wise, he is not the greatest. ---
**Author:** ![ProjectOmega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@ProjectOmega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProjectOmega)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/13 "2003-10-10T07:37:20Z")
I might be talking out of my ass here, but I think in a few more years, Stephen Hawking will be up there among the greats. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/14 "2003-10-10T10:11:54Z")
Newton, Euler and Euclid are the three that immediately spring to mind. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/15 "2003-10-10T10:13:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ProjectOmega \* > \*\*I might be talking out of my ass here, but I think in a few more years, Stephen Hawking will be up there among the greats. \*\* He’s not a mathematician he’s a cosmologist. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/16 "2003-10-10T12:10:08Z")
I vote for Euler & Gauss. I’m partial to Euler. I don’t know why. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/17 "2003-10-10T13:36:52Z")
This site has all the biographies (in a nutshell): [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Indexes/Full\_Alph.html](http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Indexes/Full_Alph.html) ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/18 "2003-10-10T13:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by David Simmons \* > \*\*However, I do believe that it took mathematicians quite a few years to put the integral calculus on a sound mathematical basis after he and Leibnitz started the ball rolling. \*\* That was done by Euler: Euler’s work in mathematics is so vast that an article of this nature cannot but give a very superficial account of it. He was the most prolific writer of mathematics of all time. He made large bounds forward in the study of modern analytic geometry and trigonometry where he was the first to consider sin, cos etc. as functions rather than as chords as Ptolemy had done. He made decisive and formative contributions to geometry, calculus and number theory. He integrated Leibniz’s differential calculus and Newton’s method of fluxions into mathematical analysis. He introduced beta and gamma functions, and integrating factors for differential equations. He studied continuum mechanics, lunar theory with Clairaut, the three body problem, elasticity, acoustics, the wave theory of light, hydraulics, and music. He laid the foundation of analytical mechanics, especially in his Theory of the Motions of Rigid Bodies (1765). [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Euler.html](http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Euler.html) ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/19 "2003-10-10T14:01:48Z")
I think everyone is leaving one out. \*He’s reclusive- sequestered in a castle while he works. \*His singular pursuit of mathematical excellence as it describes the world around him is legendary. \*Most importantly, he has probably had more influence (mathematically) over two generations of the world’s youth than anyone in his field. \*He’s purple and he has fangs. I believe you know by now that I’m talking about none other than THE COUNT. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590/20 "2003-10-10T16:19:41Z")
Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss are definitely the big three. Euler’s up there, but not quite on their level. I think that in a hundred years Turing, Gödel, Erdos (don’t know the accents), and possibly Chaitin will be counted as the 20th century’s greatest mathematicians. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-mathematician/206590.md?page=2)