Talk:Timeline of mathematics

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Mathematics rating: B Class High Priority  Field: General (historical)

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[edit] Old comments

Could at some point in time a compact timeline be produced? As much as I would like every single little discovery noted down I think for the average user something smaller might be handy? Perhaps something such as the time line of the top 100 discoveries?? Although to claim the "top 100" would be not be npov. Perhaps there is a site with a list of the "top 100" (or whatever, 100 just seems like a suitably small number) discoveries that we could link to? Mathmo 16:44, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Does anyone know when the concept of negative numbers first appeared? It should be put in the timeline somewhere. Radiant! 22:10, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The first known use and legitimization of negative numbers in mathematics is found in Brahmagupta's BrahmaSphuta-Sidd'hanta [628], an Indian mathematical text. It appears as if negative numbers evolved from a need to represent negative asset or debts. --Pranathi 02:32, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

RE: Copyright Permissions on this and other timelines developed by Niel Brandt, the following email exchange took place:

"Niel,

I saw your timeline pages, and thought they would be really valuable for the wikipedia project (http://www.wikipedia.com). Do you have any problem with someone posting them there (and setting up links)? Wikipedia uses GNU Free Document License, so your work may be redistributed by anyone in any format.

Thanks,


David Levinson"

To which was responded

"hi,

this is fine with me. good luck!

cheers, niel"

Source of timelines is various (they have been reproduced across the web). One is http://www.gsu.edu/other/timeline.html

-- user:DavidLevinson

Hey Axel what should be done furthermore to correct the following timeline remark, you've left off:

  • 1806 - Jean-Robert Argand associates vectors with complex numbers and sties complex number operations in geometrical terms,

When I shall know what is wrong with it, I shall try to fix it. Best regards. --XJamRastafire

Wessel did the same thing 9 years earlier, so I don't see the point of repeating it. AxelBoldt 03:58 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)

But I guess it is a good and courteous custom to mention J-R Argand's work anyway. This story regarding things in complex at their beginnings, as it seems, is not just nebulous, but also interesting and instructive. Very similar is the story of the divergence theorem and probably many, many others (e.g. the Poiseuille's law from hydrodynamics...) --XJamRastafire
I'm not a big fan of the repeated mentionings of the divergence theorem either. There are more than enough important events for the timeline; I don't think it's significant enough if someone rediscovers an already known theorem. This could be mentioned in the history section of the theorem's article, but for the timeline I think it's overkill. AxelBoldt 03:19 Feb 9, 2003 (UTC)

Where does this information come from?

  • 4500 BC - Carnac, Brittany, first use of the triple 3-4-5
  • 2450 BC - Egypt, first systematic method for the approximative calculation of the circle on the basis of the Sacred Triangle 3-4-5
  • 1650 BC - Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, copy of a lost scroll from around 1850 BC, a great and still widely misunderstood synopsis of early geometry and mathematics (www.seshat.ch)

AxelBoldt 01:00 Feb 16, 2003 (UTC)

I too would like to know where the "2450 BC Egypt" entry, comes from. Also to what does "calculation of the circle" refer, area?, circumference? This should be made specific, but I can't find any references to it. Paul August 04:52, Jul 21, 2004 (UTC)


I removed this:

because transcendental number claims it was Liouville in 1844.

I have seen some references suggesting that Euler proved that e was irrational in 1744. An interesting question is when transcendentals were first considered or defined. Chas zzz brown 08:20 Feb 20, 2003 (UTC)

Answering my own question (bad form I know); according to [1],
According to Paulo Ribenboim in My Numbers, My Friends, "LEIBNIZ seems to be the first mathematician who employed the expression 'transcendental number' (1704)."
Euler used transcendental in his 1733 article in Nova Acta Eruditorum titled "Constructio aequationum quarundam differentialium quae indeterminatarum separationem non admittunt":
Now there are kinds of constructions, which can be called transcendental, which arise in solving differential equations and cannot be transformed into algebraic equations.
Cheers Chas zzz brown 03:48 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC)


This page was hit in June by the same propagandist who mangled History of Physics. No real damage, but now all Arabs are marked "- Arab - "; shall we NPOV it by identifying the nationality of every other item?

This is silly. I think it would be best to just remove the nationalities. People who are competitive about what nationality long-dead mathematicians were shouldn't be the people making non-NPOV editorial decisions here. That information is already usually in the mathematicians' own pages. Otherwise, I'm afraid each entry will eventually be listed like: "Name/Country/Religion/Ancestry/Ethnic group/listened to Country Music, not Rap!" -- Daniel Quinlan Fri Jul 11 23:53:04 PDT 2003
Glad to hear it, because I think it's dernfoolishness myself. I'll be glad to fix it if no one else does, though I've run out of time tonight and tomorrow. Just sign me
Cautious newbie
alias Dandrake 07:05 12 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Actually, one piece of damage: Omar Khayyam identified as an Arab. How to get both Khameini and Khatami on your case: say all Muslims from the Middle East are Arabs. This item has been corrected.
Dandrake 01:56 12 Jul 2003 (UTC)

)


It looks like second- or third-hand information reproduced by somebody who doesn't understand it. Why not just delete the meaningless part and wait for it to be replaced by someone who cares about and understands it? Dandrake 22:39, Jan 9, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Fermi 1955

An amazing feat, if true:

  • 1955 - Enrico Fermi, John Pasta, and Stanislaw Ulam numerically study a nonlinear spring model of heat conduction and discover solitary wave type behavior,

Fermi died in 1954. Perhaps someone with mroe knowledge of the detail can change this (perhaps the PUBLISHED in this year). A little pedantic, maybe, but. . . John (Jwy) 23:24, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] non-sense list.

there is no name of grothendieck and hence the list is not serious. moreover, as far as i know there is no real arab mathematician at all, all notable ones are persian but writing in arabic. the list has to be removed completely.

[edit] Beware of prehistory

I am a casual visitor. Some of the dates given in the timeline are impressive, but they looks like pushed centuries back in time. This is especially the case of a part of Indian mathematics. Many dates are contradicted by other Wikipedia articles and common sense.

I cancel the following "1500s - Jesuit missionaries in India translate many astronomical and mathematical Indian texts and transmit them to Europe" Do not restore it unless you can give a single one title of such translated text.

I move the text about Babylonian abacus from 2400 BC to 300 BC (see abacus, Wikipedia).

I do not change the following.

"ca. 2800 BC - Indus Valley Civilization (...) the smallest unit of measurement used is 1.704 millimetres and (...)." One may trace this back to an artefact unearthed in Lothal, but Lothal did not exist in 2800 BC yet. By the way, I am curious, how did they define the unit up to one micrometer. With a microscope?

"2600 BCE - Indus Valley Civilization - objects, streets, pavements, houses, and multi-storied buildings are constructed at perfect right angles, with each brick having the same dimensions". Well, true. But regular bricks were known e.q. in Catal Hoyuk in Anatolia 3300 years earlier, streets, pavements, houses were rectangular also 3000 or 4000 years earlier elsewhere (Jarmo, Tell Buqras etc.), multistoried buildings too. Indus Valley Civilization was not the first to discover right angle.

2800 BC - The Lo Shu Square (...) was discovered in China." One may trace this to the statement in Wikipedia that it is found in Chinese literature text from 2800 BC, but there were no Chinese literature at that time (and even 2000 years later).

"ca. 1800 BC - Vedic India - Yajnavalkya writes the Shatapatha Brahmana, in which he describes (...)." Tell me, what writing system was in use in India 1800 BC? Maybe it was written 1500 years later?

"600 BC - Apastamba, author of the Apastamba Sulba Sutra (...)". Wikipedia says he lived some centuries later.

And so on, and so on.

Sincerely, 84.10.114.122 08:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC), Witold, Poland