math
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Today is the one-year anniversary of Beautiful Minds of Math! As I progress into a second year of writing posts on this blog, I wanted to cover and celebrate an influential yet humble mathematician who inspired many to explore math: Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian mathematician and the first woman to receive the Fields Medal in
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When I sit down to study for math (especially calculus), I feel like I am drowning in so many different types of formulas and rules. However, I hadn’t yet realized how many different contributions to math came from just one person: Leonhard Euler. Euler (pronounced oil-er!) reshaped the way mathematics is studied and applied. Born
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This summer, in my preparation for AP Calculus BC, I came across a concept in unit 6 on the area under a curve known as Riemann Sums. The idea that this area could be approximated with two sets of seemingly random rectangles was surprising to me, for I was very familiar with derivatives at this
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Magnus Carlsen once jested in an interview that John Nunn “never became world champion because he is too clever… his enormous powers of understanding distracted him from chess.” The throwaway line was meant as a light compliment. Nevertheless, it hinted at the type of intellectual being that Nunn was, which gave him the ability to
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Being a mathematician in the 1900s was not an occupation that many people envied. Mathematicians often didn’t have much money, and by this point in history, it seemed like there was nothing new under the sun in terms of ideas or concepts to explore in the field. John Von Neumann, a Hungarian-American mathematician, was not
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After recently pondering the elegant subtleties of zero, the notion that “the existence of nothing is required to define something”, I was reminded of one of the most pivotal figures in mathematical history: Brahmagupta, the 7th-century Indian mathematician who revolutionized math by fully developing zero as a number. While many have heard that “Arab mathematicians
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After noticing on the calendar that it is March–Women’s History Month and seeing an old factorization method in my notes, I decided it was time to write about one of the most influential women in the world of mathematics. Despite the objectively greater prominence of men in terms of mathematical contributions, I want to highlight
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René Descartes is one of history’s most transformative thinkers, widely hailed as the “Father of Modern Philosophy” for his pioneering contributions to rationalism. Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine, France, where he received a Jesuit education that nurtured his inquisitive mind and led him to challenge convention in everything from theology to physics
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Carl Friedrich Gauss, known as the “Prince of Mathematics,” was the original math prodigy: you can think of him as the Mozart of numbers, but instead of symphonies, he composed theorems. If you’re the type of person who thrives on competition math or spends hours strategizing over chessboards like me, Gauss is your guy. While
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A²+B² = C². This formula that we have all learned about at one point in our lives is integral to all geometric calculations and mathematical applications in general. Although we are familiar with the formula, not many of us know anything about the man who derived this important formula. This person was none other than the
Beautiful Minds 