Who was/is best at mathematics?

[JWHooper]

I think Albert Einstein was best at math.

 

[VashtiMaiden]

For me, it's Carl Gauss.

 

[Gokul43201]

Other was really good at math. In fact, he was pretty awesome!

 

[Cyrus]

Gauss had something like over 200 papers. Amazing.

 

[scarecrow]

Gauss.

 

[binzing]

I vote other because it would include all of the above, plus all others. IMO

 

[slider142]

Gauss and Euler. This is based on shear volume of high quality work.

 

[Poop-Loops]

From the list, I'd also have to go with Gauss.

I think Newton would have been "the ultimate" if he didn't spend so much time on alchemy and junk.

 

[Kurdt]

Gauss is going to win this by miles.

 

[G01]

Gauss gets my vote. The man was an genius physicist and mathematician and made famous, unrivaled contributions to both fields. Most of us would be considered extremely brilliant to make 1/4 of the contributions he made to one of the fields.

 

[Marco_84]

Well Gauss studied many thinks... many branches in both math and physics, but i think that also Riemann was a genus; unforunately he died early in his forties...
ciao
marco

 

[VashtiMaiden]

so Carl Friedrich Gauss was the best mathematician?

 

[binzing]

Of that, dare I say, limited list, perhaps.

 

[tgt]

What about Euler or Riemann?

 

[Cyrus]

Of that, dare I say, limited list, perhaps.

Oh come now, old chap. Whats with this sudden change in style of typing?

Cheerio.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Other was really good at math. In fact, he was pretty awesome!

Gauss had something like over 200 papers. Amazing.

Yeah, but think about how many papers Other had!

 

[NickAlger]

Y'all are forgetting Archimedes.

 

[gravenewworld]

Euler
Galois
Cauchy
Godel

 

[Art]

From the list, I'd also have to go with Gauss.

I think Newton would have been "the ultimate" if he didn't spend so much time on alchemy and junk.

Wasn't Newton's alchemy simply early chemistry. Alchemy sounded like nonsense because of the strange allegorical way in which alchemists described their work but once you get past the Mars = Iron and Saturn = lead etc it was pretty good science for it's day and it is pretty easy to see why some of the compounds they produced would have seemed like magic to them.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Did Newton get anywhere with it, though? I don't recall ever hearing of him accomplishing anything with his study in Alchemy (or whatever you want to call it).

 

[Art]

Did Newton get anywhere with it, though? I don't recall ever hearing of him accomplishing anything with his study in Alchemy (or whatever you want to call it).

Indirectly perhaps

Sir Isaac Newton, the famous seventeenth-century mathematician and scientist, though not generally known as an alchemist, practiced the art with a passion. Though he wrote over a million words on the subject, after his death in 1727, the Royal Society deemed that they were "not fit to be printed." The papers were rediscovered in the middle of the twentieth century and most scholars now concede that Newton was first an foremost an alchemist. It is also becoming obvious that the inspiration for Newton's laws of light and theory of gravity came from his alchemical work.

http://www.alchemylab.com/isaac_Newton.htm

 

[Poop-Loops]

Reminds me of how I can sometimes get the right answer on a test or homework problem while completely misunderstanding the math and physics involved. :grumpy:

Not to say he didn't, just that he went about it the wrong way but ended up in the right spot anyway.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

I voted Gauss.I thought he might be popular but I was surprised so many people agreed. But for me he was a bit of a giant.

 

[humanino]

In order to hide the fact that I totally lack any mathematical culture, I will do just as the other who said "Other". Thus, you will not be aware of the terribly limited understanding I have of the immense field of its contributors.

No after all I changed my mind. I vote for Ramanujan's teacher in high school.

 

[humanino]

And, oh, BTW Albert was a good physicist, not a mathematician at all.

 

[Daniel Y.]

And, oh, BTW Albert was a good physicist, not a mathematician at all.

Psh, good physicist? Not if you exclude Relativity. We all know it was Mileva who created relativity.

 

[humanino]

Psh, good physicist? Not if you exclude Relativity.

Oh well, Albert received a Nobel prize "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", and probably he would have gotten it even without relativity :tongue2:

Seriously, this is an interesting historical issue. Note in particular that the speech begins with

There is probably no physicist living today whose name has become so widely known as that of Albert Einstein. Most discussion centres on his theory of relativity. This pertains essentially to epistemology and has therefore been the subject of lively debate in philosophical circles. It will be no secret that the famous philosopher Bergson in Paris has challenged this theory, while other philosophers have acclaimed it wholeheartedly. The theory in question also has astrophysical implications which are being rigorously examined at the present time.

and then, that's it about relativity. One has to read much more to fully appreciate the context.

 

[Mk]

I voted for Gauss. And then was surprised to see that nobody else was even remotely close.

Gauss was probably the most amazing and prolific mathematician who has ever lived.

 

[jhicks]

Where's Euler? Like half of mathematics has an "Euler something"

 

[Mk]

Euler wasn't smart, he was magic.

Magic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_named_after_Leonhard_Euler

 

[Air]

I vote other because it would include all of the above, plus all others. IMO

Same. Also, some other great mathematician were forgotten (Euler, Riemann, Archimedes, Fermat, Fibonacci etc). Some may have not created the best theories but the fact that they contributed to mathematics is something to be proud of.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Same. Also, some other great mathematician were forgotten (Euler, Riemann, Archimedes, Fermat, Fibonacci etc). Some may have not created the best theories but the fact that they contributed to mathematics is something to be proud of.

Maybe Renes Descartes should be up there then.

 

[doc.madani]

Gauss for me.

 

[DavidWhitbeck]

Euler, Gauss, Ramanujan, Hardy, Hamilton (all of them), Galois, Riemann, Hilbert, Weierstrass, Euclid, Poincare etc etc take your pick there are many great mathematicians that don't appear in this poll.

I have no idea why the poll has a few of the greatest physicists instead!

 

[Howers]

Didn't Einstein enlist the help of a mathametician when developing his theories? And wasn't his wife always doing the math?

I don't think he was a mathametician at all. Brilliant physicist, nonetheless.

Seeing as Gauss is practically the only mathametician on the list... there is little choice but to vote him.