The famous German scientist Gauss (1777 ~ 1855) was born in a poor family. Gauss learned to calculate by himself before he could speak. When he was three years old, he watched his father calculate his salary one night and corrected his father's calculation mistakes.
When he grew up, he became the most outstanding astronomer and mathematician of our time. He made some contributions to physics electromagnetism, and now a unit of electromagnetism is named after him. Mathematicians call him "the prince of mathematics".
He entered a rural primary school at the age of eight. The teacher who teaches mathematics is from the city. He feels that teaching a few little lynx in remote places is really overqualified. Moreover, he has some prejudices: children from poor families are born fools, and there is no need to teach these stupid children to study hard. If there is an opportunity, they should be punished to add some fun to this boring life.
This day is a depressing day for the math teacher. The students cringed when they saw the teacher's depressed face, knowing that the teacher was going to arrest these students again today and punish them.
"You calculate for me today, from 1 plus 2 plus 3 to 100. Whoever can't figure it out will be punished for not going home for lunch. " The teacher said this, picked up a novel, sat in a chair and read it without saying a word.
The children in the classroom picked up the slate and began to calculate: "1 plus 2 equals 3, 3 plus 3 equals 6, 6 plus 4 equals10 …" Some children added a number to the slate and then erased the result. After adding it, the number is getting bigger and bigger, which is difficult to calculate. Some children's little faces turned red, and some children's palms and foreheads oozed sweat.
Less than half an hour later, little Gauss picked up the slate and stepped forward. "Teacher, is this the answer?"
Without looking up, the teacher waved his thick hand and said, "Go, go back!"! Wrong. " He thought it impossible to have an answer so soon.
But Gauss stood still and put the slate in front of the teacher: "Teacher! I think this answer is correct. "
The math teacher wanted to shout, but when he saw the number written on the slate: 5050, he was surprised because he calculated it himself and got the number of 5050. How did this 8-year-old child get this value so quickly?
Gauss explained a method he discovered, which was used by the ancient Greeks and China people to calculate the sequence1+2+3+…+n. Gauss's discovery made the teacher feel ashamed, and felt that his previous view of being arrogant and belittling poor children was wrong. He also taught seriously in the future, and often bought some math books from the city for his own study and lent them to Gauss. With his encouragement, Gauss later did some important research in mathematics.
Xiaooula zhigai sheepfold
Euler is a famous mathematician in the history of mathematics. He has made outstanding achievements in several branches of mathematics, such as number theory, geometry, astronomical mathematics and calculus. However, this great mathematician was not liked by teachers at all when he was a child. He is a student expelled from school.
Things are caused by stars. At that time, little Euler was studying in a missionary school. Once, he asked the teacher how many stars there were in the sky. The teacher is a believer in theology. He doesn't know how many stars there are in the sky, and the Bible doesn't answer. In fact, there are countless stars in the sky, which are infinite. There are thousands of stars visible to the naked eye. Without pretending to understand, the teacher replied to Euler, "It doesn't matter how many stars there are in the sky, as long as you know that the stars in the sky are inlaid by God."
Euler felt very strange: "The sky is so big and so high, and there is no escalator on the ground. How did God embed the stars on the screen one by one? " God himself put them in the sky one by one. Why did he forget the number of stars? Could God be too careless?
He asked the teacher a question in his heart, and the teacher was confused again, blushed and didn't know how to answer. A sudden anger rose in the teacher's heart, not only because a child who just went to school asked the teacher such a question, so that the teacher could not step down, but more importantly, the teacher regarded God above everything else. Little Euler blames God for not remembering the number of stars. The implication is that he doubts almighty god. In the teacher's view, this is a serious problem.
In Euler's time, there was absolutely no doubt about God. People can only be slaves of ideas, and they are absolutely not allowed to think freely. Little Euler didn't "keep in line" with the church and God, so the teacher told him to leave school and go home. However, in little Euler's mind, the sacred aura of God disappeared. God is a loser, he thought. Why can't he even remember the stars in the sky? He thought, God is a dictator, and even asking questions has become a crime. He thinks that God may be a guy made up by others and does not exist at all.
After returning home, he helped his father herd sheep and became a shepherd boy. He read a book while herding sheep. Among the books he read, there are many math books.
Dad's flock increased gradually, reaching 100. The original sheepfold was a little small, so my father decided to build a new sheepfold. He measured a rectangular piece of land with a ruler, 40 meters long and 15 meters wide. He calculated that the area is exactly 600 square meters, with an average of 6 square meters per sheep. When he was ready to start construction, he found that his materials were only enough for the fence of 100 meters, which was not enough at all. If you want to enclose a sheepfold with a length of 40m and a width of 15m, its circumference is110m (15+15+40+40 =1/kloc-0). If we want to build it according to the original plan, my father feels very embarrassed. If the area is reduced, the area of each sheep is less than 6 square meters.
Little Euler told his father that there was no need to shrink the sheepfold and not to worry that the territory of each sheep would be smaller than originally planned. He has an idea. Father didn't believe that little Euler would have a way, so he ignored him. Little Euler was in a hurry and said loudly, only moving a little stake in the sheepfold.
Father shook his head and thought, "How can there be such a cheap thing in the world?" However, little Euler insisted that he would be able to kill two birds with one stone. The father finally agreed to let his son try.
Little Euler saw that his father agreed, stood up and ran to the sheepfold to start work. He shortened the original side length of 40 meters to 25 meters centered on the stake. The father was anxious and said, "How can that be done? Then how to do it? This sheepfold is too small, too small. " Little Euler didn't answer, so he ran to the other side and extended the original side length of15m, and increased it by10m to 25m. In this way, the original planned sheepfold has become a square with a side length of 25 meters. Then, little Euler confidently said to his father, "Now, the fence is enough and the area is enough."
Father built a fence according to the sheepfold designed by little Euler. 100 meter fence is really enough, no more, no less, all used up. The area is enough, a little bigger. Father felt very happy. Children are smarter than themselves, they really use their brains, and they will definitely have a bright future.
Father thinks it's a pity to let such a clever child herd sheep. Later, he tried to let little Euler know the great mathematician Bernoulli. On the recommendation of mathematicians, little Euler became a college student in university of basel on 1720. This year, little Euler 13 was the youngest student in this university.
Great aspiration of serving the motherland-Hua's story
As we all know, Hua is a self-taught world-class mathematician. He only has a junior high school diploma. Because a paper was published in Science magazine, it was appreciated by mathematician Xiong Qinglai. From then on, North China went to Tsinghua and began his mathematics career.
65438-0936, recommended by Professor Xiong Qinglai, Hua went to Cambridge University in England to study. Hardy, a famous mathematician in the 20th century, has long heard that China is brilliant. He said, "You can get a doctorate in two years." But Hua said, "I don't want to get a doctorate." I just want to be a tourist. " "I came to Cambridge to study, not to get a degree." In the past two years, he has devoted himself to studying the theory of heap-based prime numbers, published 18 papers on the problems of Waring, altruism and Chigodbach, obtained the famous Fahrenheit theorem, and showed the outstanding wisdom and ability of China mathematicians to the whole world.
From 65438 to 0946, Hua was invited to give lectures in the United States and was hired as a tenured professor by the University of Illinois. His family also settled in the United States, with a house and a car, and their life was very comfortable. At that time, many people thought that Hua would never come back.
The birth of the new China touched China's love for the motherland. 1950, he resolutely gave up his comfortable life in America and returned to his motherland. He also wrote an open letter to China students studying in the United States, urging them to return to China to participate in socialist construction. In his letter, he confessed his love for China: "Friends! Although Liangyuan is good, it is not the hometown of longevity. Go back to Xi ... For the sake of the nation, we should go back ... "Although mathematics has no national boundaries, mathematicians have their own motherland.
Hua returned from overseas and was warmly welcomed by the party and people. He returned to Tsinghua campus, was appointed as the head of the Department of Mathematics, and was soon appointed as the director of the Institute of Mathematics of China Academy of Sciences. From then on, the real golden age of his mathematical research began. He has not only made remarkable achievements that have attracted worldwide attention, but also enthusiastically cared for and trained a large number of mathematical talents. He devoted a lot of efforts to the research, experiment and popularization of applied mathematics.
According to incomplete statistics, China has published 152 important mathematical papers, 9 mathematical works and10/popular mathematical works for decades. He was also elected as a foreign academician of the Academy of Sciences and an academician of third world scientists.
From junior high school graduation to people's mathematician, Hua has gone through a tortuous and brilliant life path and won great honor for his motherland.
Archimedes (about 287 ~ 2 BC12 BC)
-Greek physicist and mathematician.
Archimedes' father was an astronomer and mathematician. He received a good education since he was a child and especially loved mathematics. Once, the king asked him to determine whether the crown just made by the goldsmith was pure gold or mixed silver, and warned him not to destroy the crown. At first, Archimedes was at a loss. Until one day, he soaked in a basin full of bath water, and the volume of spilled water was equal to the volume of his body immersed in the water. Then, if the crown is immersed in water, according to the rise of the water surface, the volume of the crown is equal to the volume of equal weight gold, which means that the crown is pure gold; If mixed with silver, the crown will be bigger. He jumped out of the bathtub excitedly and ran to the palace naked, shouting, "I found it!" " I found it! "He invented the principle of buoyancy. In addition, he also discovered the famous lever principle. Along with this invention, a well-known famous saying came into being: "Just give me a fulcrum and I will move the earth. "
In his later years, Archimedes' motherland was at war with Rome. When the city where he lived was looted, Archimedes also devoted himself to studying the geometric figures he drew in the sand. Cruel Roman soldiers stabbed a 75-year-old man to death, and great scientists threw themselves on blood-stained geometric figures. ...
After Archimedes' death, people compiled and published The Complete Works of Archimedes' Legacy, in order to remember the great achievements of this great scientist forever.
Newton (1642 ~ 1727)
Newton was an English physicist and mathematician. Former President of the Royal Society.
Newton is recognized as one of the greatest scientists of all time. His childhood was full of pain. His father died three months before he was born, and later his mother remarried. He was brought up by his grandmother. After graduating from the famous Cambridge University, I stayed to work in the school. Later, he came to his mother's farm to escape the plague prevalent in London. Here, he was attracted by a phenomenon that ordinary people turned a blind eye. Once, when he saw a ripe apple fall to the ground, he began to wonder why the apple landed vertically instead of flying into the sky. There must be a force pulling it, so will this force pulling the apple down control the moon? It was through this seemingly simple phenomenon that he discovered the famous law of gravity. The great function of this law will soon be shown. It explained the motion of all celestial bodies known at that time. At the same time, Newton completed an important optical experiment, which proved that white light is composed of synthetic light arranged in sequence of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple. 1687, Newton published the greatest scientific work ever, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Here, he deeply studied Galileo's theory and summarized three famous laws of motion. In addition, the binomial theorem he discovered also has a place in mathematics. 1704 published the book Optics, and summarized his research achievements in optics.
Newton was elected president of the Royal Society at the age of 6 1 and was re-elected every year until his death. As the most outstanding master of science recognized by the world, he still modestly said: "If I see farther than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." 1727 On March 20th, Newton died at the age of 84. As a great man who made contributions to the country, he was buried in the British National Cemetery and respected by the world.
Euler (1707 ~ 1783)
Euler, Swiss mathematician, member of the Royal Society.
Euler was fascinated by mathematics since he was a child, and he was an out-and-out mathematical genius. /kloc-became a student of a prestigious Basel school at the age of 0/3,/kloc-obtained a master's degree at the age of 0/6, and was promoted to a professor at the age of 23. 1727 was invited to work in the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Russia. Overwork blinded him. However, this did not affect his work. Euler has an amazing memory. Hydrogen theory 177 1 a fire in St. Petersburg reduced his large collection of books and manuscripts to ashes. With his amazing memory, he dictated and published more than 400 papers and many works. Euler, a mathematical superstar in18th century, has made great contributions in the fields of calculus, differential equations, geometry, number theory, variational science and so on, thus establishing the position of the founder of variational method and the pioneer of complex variable function. At the same time, he is also an excellent popular science writer, and his popular science books have been reprinted for 90 years. Euler is the most prolific mathematician ever. It is said that his precious cultural heritage was enough for all the printing presses in St. Petersburg to be busy for several years at the same time.
As one of the four mathematicians who have made the greatest contribution to mathematics in history (the other three are Archimedes, Newton and Gauss), Euler is known as "Shakespeare in mathematics".
Gauss (1777 ~ 1855)
Gauss is a German mathematician, physicist and astronomer, and a member of the Royal Society.
Gauss is the son of a farmer. When he was young, he showed extraordinary talent in mathematics. 3 years old can correct the mistakes in father's calculation; 10 years old, independently found the sum formula of arithmetic sequence; The binomial theorem was discovered in 1 1 year. Young Gauss's intelligence and early wisdom were favored and funded by the prestigious Duke Brick, enabling him to continue his studies. 19-year-old gauss invented the method of making regular 17 polygons with only compasses and rulers, and solved the geometric problems that have been unresolved for two thousand years. 180 1 published "Arithmetic Research", which expounded some problems of number theory and higher algebra. He has made great contributions to hypergeometric series, complex variable function, statistical mathematics and elliptic function theory. As a physicist, he cooperated with wilhelm weber to study electromagnetism and invented the electrode. In order to carry out experiments, Gauss also invented the double-wire magnetometer, which is a very practical achievement of his research on electromagnetism. At the age of 30, Gauss served as the director of the observatory of a famous German university, and worked in the observatory until his death. He also likes literature and linguistics all his life and knows more than a dozen foreign languages. In his life, he published 323 works, put forward 404 scientific ideas and completed four important inventions.
After Gauss died, a statue of him was erected in the city where he was born. To commemorate his discovery of the method of making 17 polygon, the base of the statue was modified to 17 polygon. It is universally acknowledged that he is a mathematician on par with Newton, Archimedes and Euler.
Zu Chongzhi (429 ~ 500)
China was a mathematician, astronomer and physicist in the Southern Dynasties. Fan was born in (now Laishui, Hebei Province).
Zu Chongzhi (429-500) had a grandfather named Zuchang, who was an official in charge of royal architecture in Song Dynasty. Zu Chongzhi grew up in such a family and learned a lot from childhood. People all praise him as a knowledgeable young man. He especially likes studying mathematics, and he also likes studying astronomical calendars. He often observes the movements of the sun and planets and makes detailed records.
When Emperor Xiaowu of Song heard of his fame, he sent him to work in a government office specializing in academic research in Hualin Province. He is not interested in being an official, but he can concentrate more on mathematics and astronomy there.
There have been officials who studied astronomy in all previous dynasties in our country. They made calendars according to the results of astronomical research. By the Song Dynasty, the calendar had made great progress, but Zu Chongzhi thought it was not accurate enough. Based on his long-term observation, he created a new calendar called "Daming Calendar" ("Daming" is the title of Emperor Xiaowu of Song Dynasty). The number of days in each tropical year measured by this calendar (that is, the time between the winter solstice and the sun in two years) is only 50 seconds different from that measured by modern science; It takes less than one second to measure the number of days for the moon to make one revolution, which shows its accuracy.
In 462 AD, Zu Chongzhi requested Emperor Xiaowu of Song Dynasty to issue a new calendar, and Emperor Xiaowu called ministers to discuss it. At that time, Dai Faxing, one of the emperor's minions, stood out against it and thought that it was deviant for Zu Chongzhi to change the ancient calendar without authorization. Zu Chongzhi refuted Defarge on the spot with his own research data. Relying on the emperor's favor, Dai Faxing said arrogantly: "The calendar was formulated by the ancients and cannot be changed by future generations." Zu Chongzhi is not afraid at all. He said very seriously, "If you have a solid basis, argue it out. Don't scare people with empty talk. " Emperor Xiaowu of Song wanted to help Dai Faxing, and found some people who knew the calendar to argue with Zu Chongzhi, but Zu Chongzhi refuted them one by one. However, Emperor Xiaowu of Song still refused to issue a new calendar. It was not until ten years after Zu Chongzhi's death that his Da Ming Li was put into practice.
Although the society was very turbulent at that time, Zu Chongzhi studied science tirelessly. His greater achievement is in mathematics. He once annotated the ancient mathematics book Nine Chapters Arithmetic and wrote a book Composition. His most outstanding contribution is to get quite accurate pi. After a long and arduous study, he calculated pi between 3. 14 15926 and 3. 14 15927, becoming the first scientist in the world to calculate pi to more than seven digits.
Zu Chongzhi is a generalist in scientific inventions. He built a kind of compass, and the copper man in the car always pointed south. He also built a "Thousand-Li Ship" and tried it in Xinting River (now southwest of Nanjing). It can sail 100 Li a day. He also used hydraulic power to rotate the stone mill, pounding rice and grinding millet, which was called "water hammer mill".
In Zu Chongzhi's later years, Xiao Daocheng, who mastered the Song Guards, wiped out the Song Dynasty.
Hua (19 10 ~ 1985)
China mathematician, mathematics educator, academician of China Academy of Sciences, a native of Jintan, Jiangsu.
Hua's father is a small boss who runs a grocery store. Due to the bleak business and deteriorating family circumstances, Hua dropped out of school and became a bookkeeper in a grocery store. In the tedious and monotonous work, he did not give up his greatest hobby-mathematical research. Just as he was trying to teach himself, disaster fell from the sky-he contracted terrible typhoid fever and was sentenced to death by the doctor. However, he miraculously survived, only his left leg was permanently disabled. It is this sentence that he often talks about: "The so-called genius depends on unremitting efforts." With unremitting efforts and hard self-study, this mathematician without a junior college diploma touched the domestic mathematics circle with a paper "The reason why Su Jiaju's algebraic quintic equation can't be solved" in 1930. Later, he was recommended by Professor Xiong Qinglai to be a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University. Here, under the guidance of Xiong Qinglai and Yang Wuzhi, he made great progress academically and gradually established his position in the field of mathematics. 1948 was invited by an American university to teach. After the founding of New China, he resolutely gave up his excellent working and living conditions and returned to China with his wife and children. He became a professor in the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University and later served as the director of the Institute of Mathematics of China Academy of Sciences. He attached great importance to and advocated the application of mathematical theory to production practice, and personally organized and popularized "optimization method" and "overall planning method", which showed great power in socialist modernization. He worked hard all his life and published more than 200 academic papers and monographs 10. As a mathematics educator, he trained a number of outstanding mathematicians such as Chen Jingrun, Wang Yuan and Lu Qikeng, and formed the China School of Mathematics, some of whom have become world-class mathematicians.
1985 June 2002 12, Hua died of a sudden myocardial infarction while giving lectures in Japan at the age of 75. With "the greatest hope is to work until the last moment of life", Hua, who inspires himself all his life, will always live in the hearts of the people.
Chen Jingrun (1933 ~ 1966)
China mathematician and academician of China Academy of Sciences. Fujian Minhou people.
Chen Jingrun was born in a small clerical family, ranking third with his brothers and sisters. Because there are many children at home, my father's income is meager, and family life is very tight. So Chen Jingrun seems to be a burden to his parents from birth, a person who thinks he is unwelcome. After school, I was often bullied because I was thin and weak. This special life situation has shaped him into an extremely introverted and inarticulate person, and his fascination with mathematics has made him develop the habit of thinking alone and building a car behind closed doors, so he is considered a "freak" by others. Chen Jingrun chose to study mathematics all his life, which was related to Professor Shen Yuan. There, Chen Jingrun first learned about Goldbach's conjecture, that is, from there, from the first moment of Chen Jingrun, he was determined to take off the jewel in the crown of mathematics. 1953, he graduated from Xiamen University and stayed in the library to work, but he never forgot Goldbach's conjecture. He sent his math paper to Professor Hua, who appreciated his talent and transferred him to the Institute of Mathematics of China Academy of Sciences as an intern researcher. From then on, under the guidance of Hua, he was lucky enough to enter Goldbach's conjecture. 1966 In May, a dazzling new star flashed over the global mathematics world-Chen Jingrun announced that he had proved "1+2" in Goldbach's conjecture; 1972 February, completed the modification of "1+2" certificate. Incredibly, foreign mathematicians use large high-speed computers to prove "1+3", while Chen Jingrun relies entirely on paper, pens and skulls. If this is puzzling, then the six sacks of manuscript paper he used to simplify the proof of "1+2" is enough to explain the problem. 1973, he published the famous "Chen Theorem", which is considered as the glorious culmination of the screening method.
For Chen Jingrun's achievements, a famous mathematician abroad once marveled and was deeply moved: he moved mountains and poured seas!
Neumann
Neumann (1903~ 1957) is a Hungarian-born American mathematician and a member of the American Academy of Sciences.
Neumann was born in the family of a Jewish banker, and he was a rare child prodigy. He mastered calculus at the age of 8, and read function theory at the age of 12. On his growing up, there is an interesting story: in the summer of 19 13, Mr. Max, a banker, gave a revelation that he was willing to hire a tutor for his eldest son Neumann, who was 1 1 years old, and his salary was 10 times that of ordinary teachers. Although this seductive revelation made many people feel heartbroken, no one dared to teach such a well-known child prodigy ... After he received his Ph.D. in physics-mathematics at the age of 2 1, he began multidisciplinary research, first mathematics, mechanics, physics, then economics, meteorology, then atomic bomb engineering, and finally, he devoted himself to the research of electronic computers. All these make him a complete scientific generalist. His main achievement is mathematical research. He has made great contributions to many branches of higher mathematics, and the most outstanding work is to open up a new branch of mathematics-game theory. 1944 published his excellent book Game Theory and Economic Behavior. During the Second World War, he made an important contribution to the development of the first atomic bomb. After the war, he used his mathematical ability to guide the manufacture of large electronic computers and was known as the father of electronic computers.