Mathematics, MOR-PLA

Mathematics is a science of structure, order, and relation that deals with logical reasoning and quantitative calculation. The history of mathematics can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia; ancient clay tablets have proven that the level of mathematical competence was already high as early as roughly the 18th century BCE. Over the centuries, mathematics has evolved from elemental practices of counting, measuring, and describing the shapes of objects into a crucial adjunct to the physical sciences and technology.
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Mathematics Encyclopedia Articles By Title

Mori Shigefumi
Mori Shigefumi is a Japanese mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his work in algebraic geometry.......
multinomial distribution
multinomial distribution, in statistics, a generalization of the binomial distribution, which admits only two values......
multinomial theorem
multinomial theorem, in algebra, a generalization of the binomial theorem to more than two variables. In statistics,......
multiple integral
multiple integral, In calculus, the integral of a function of more than one variable. As the integral of a function......
Mumford, David
David Mumford is a British-born mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1974 for his work in algebraic......
Musschenbroek, Pieter van
Pieter van Musschenbroek was a Dutch mathematician and physicist who discovered the principle of the Leyden jar......
Möbius strip
Möbius strip, a one-sided surface that can be constructed by affixing the ends of a rectangular strip after first......
Möbius, August Ferdinand
August Ferdinand Möbius was a German mathematician and theoretical astronomer who is best known for his work in......
Napier, John
John Napier was a Scottish mathematician and theological writer who originated the concept of logarithms as a mathematical......
Nash equilibrium
Nash equilibrium, in game theory, an outcome in a noncooperative game for two or more players in which no player’s......
Nash, John
John Nash was an American mathematician who was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics for his landmark work,......
National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent agency of the U.S. government that supports basic research and......
natural logarithm
natural logarithm (ln), logarithm with base e = 2.718281828…. That is, ln (ex) = x, where ex is the exponential......
natural number
natural number, any number in the set of positive integers {1, 2, 3…} and sometimes zero. The term natural likely......
Naur, Peter
Peter Naur was a Danish astronomer and computer scientist and winner of the 2005 A.M. Turing Award, the highest......
Navier-Stokes equation
Navier-Stokes equation, in fluid mechanics, a partial differential equation that describes the flow of incompressible......
Negroponte, Nicholas
Nicholas Negroponte is an American architect and computer scientist who was the founding director of the Massachusetts......
Newcomb, Simon
Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-born American astronomer and mathematician who prepared ephemerides—tables of computed......
Newell, Allen
Allen Newell was an American computer scientist and one of the pioneers of the science of artificial intelligence......
Newman, James Roy
James Roy Newman was an American lawyer, best known for his monumental four-volume historical survey of mathematics,......
Newton and Infinite Series
Isaac Newton’s calculus actually began in 1665 with his discovery of the general binomial series (1 + x)n = 1 +......
Newton, Isaac
Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician who was the culminating figure of the Scientific Revolution......
Neyman, Jerzy
Jerzy Neyman was a Polish mathematician and statistician who, working in Russian, Polish, and then English, helped......
Ngo Bao Chau
Ngo Bao Chau is a Vietnamese-French mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 2010 for his work in algebraic......
Nicholas Of Cusa
Nicholas Of Cusa was a cardinal, mathematician, scholar, experimental scientist, and influential philosopher who......
Nicomachus of Gerasa
Nicomachus of Gerasa was a Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician who wrote Arithmētikē eisagōgē (Introduction......
Nirenberg, Louis
Louis Nirenberg was a Canadian-born American mathematician who was noted for his work in analysis, with an emphasis......
Noether, Emmy
Emmy Noether was a German mathematician whose innovations in higher algebra gained her recognition as the most......
nomogram
nomogram, calculating chart with scales that contain values of three or more mathematical variables, widely used......
non-Euclidean geometry
non-Euclidean geometry, literally any geometry that is not the same as Euclidean geometry. Although the term is......
normal distribution
normal distribution, the most common distribution function for independent, randomly generated variables. Its familiar......
Novikov, Sergei
Sergei Novikov is a Russian mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970 for his work in topology. Novikov......
NP-complete problem
NP-complete problem, any of a class of computational problems for which no efficient solution algorithm has been......
number
number, any of the positive or negative integers or any of the set of all real or complex numbers, the latter containing......
number theory
number theory, branch of mathematics concerned with properties of the positive integers (1, 2, 3, …). Sometimes......
numeral system
numeral system, any of various sets of symbols and the rules for using them to represent numbers, which are used......
numerals and numeral systems
Numerals are the symbols used to represent small numbers, and numeral systems are collections of these symbols......
numerical analysis
numerical analysis, area of mathematics and computer science that creates, analyzes, and implements algorithms......
Nygaard, Kristen
Kristen Nygaard was a Norwegian mathematician and computer scientist who invented, with his coworker Ole-Johan......
Oberth, Hermann
Hermann Oberth was a German scientist who is considered to be one of the founders of modern astronautics. The son......
Okounkov, Andrei
Andrei Okounkov is a Russian mathematician who was awarded a Fields Medal in 2006 “for his contributions bridging......
Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet, renowned in his own country and time for his scientific......
operator
operator, in mathematics, any symbol that indicates an operation to be performed. Examples are x (which indicates......
optimization
optimization, collection of mathematical principles and methods used for solving quantitative problems in many......
ordinary differential equation
ordinary differential equation (ODE), in mathematics, an equation relating a function f of one variable to its......
Oresme, Nicholas
Nicholas Oresme was a French Roman Catholic bishop, scholastic philosopher, economist, and mathematician whose......
Orshansky, Mollie
Mollie Orshansky was an American statistician who in the 1960s developed U.S. federal poverty thresholds that determined......
orthogonal trajectory
orthogonal trajectory, family of curves that intersect another family of curves at right angles (orthogonal; see......
orthogonality
orthogonality, In mathematics, a property synonymous with perpendicularity when applied to vectors but applicable......
Oughtred, William
William Oughtred was an English mathematician and Anglican minister who invented the earliest form of the slide......
P versus NP problem
P versus NP problem, in computational complexity (a subfield of theoretical computer science and mathematics),......
packing
packing, in mathematics, a type of problem in combinatorial geometry that involves placement of figures of a given......
Page, Larry
Larry Page is an American computer scientist and entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, created the online search......
Painlevé, Paul
Paul Painlevé was a French politician, mathematician, and patron of aviation who was prime minister at a crucial......
Papert, Seymour
Seymour Papert was a South African-born mathematician and computer scientist who was best known for his contributions......
Pappus of Alexandria
Pappus of Alexandria was the most important mathematical author writing in Greek during the later Roman Empire,......
Pappus’s theorem
Pappus’s theorem, in mathematics, theorem named for the 4th-century Greek geometer Pappus of Alexandria that describes......
parabola
parabola, open curve, a conic section produced by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel......
parabolic equation
parabolic equation, any of a class of partial differential equations arising in the mathematical analysis of diffusion......
paraboloid
paraboloid, an open surface generated by rotating a parabola (q.v.) about its axis. If the axis of the surface......
parallel postulate
parallel postulate, One of the five postulates, or axioms, of Euclid underpinning Euclidean geometry. It states......
parallelogram
parallelogram, in geometry, a four-sided plane figure in which both pairs of opposite sides are parallel and equal.......
parameter
parameter, in mathematics, a variable for which the range of possible values identifies a collection of distinct......
parameters, variation of
variation of parameters, general method for finding a particular solution of a differential equation by replacing......
parametric equation
parametric equation, a type of equation that employs an independent variable called a parameter (often denoted......
partial derivative
partial derivative, In differential calculus, the derivative of a function of several variables with respect to......
partial differential equation
partial differential equation, in mathematics, equation relating a function of several variables to its partial......
partition
partition, in mathematics and logic, division of a set of objects into a family of subsets that are mutually exclusive......
Pascal, Blaise
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. He laid the foundation......
Pascaline
Pascaline, the first calculator or adding machine to be produced in any quantity and actually used. The Pascaline......
Pascal’s triangle
Pascal’s triangle, in algebra, a triangular arrangement of numbers that gives the coefficients in the expansion......
pattern recognition
pattern recognition, in computer science, the imposition of identity on input data, such as speech, images, or......
Peano axioms
Peano axioms, in number theory, five axioms introduced in 1889 by Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano. Like the......
Peano, Giuseppe
Giuseppe Peano was an Italian mathematician and a founder of symbolic logic whose interests centred on the foundations......
Pearl, Judea
Judea Pearl is an Israeli-American computer scientist and winner of the 2011 A.M. Turing Award, the highest honor......
Pearson distribution
Pearson distribution, in statistics, a family of continuous distribution functions first published by British statistician......
Pearson, Karl
Karl Pearson was a British statistician, leading founder of the modern field of statistics, prominent proponent......
Pearson’s correlation coefficient
Pearson’s correlation coefficient, a measurement quantifying the strength of the association between two variables.......
Peirce, Benjamin
Benjamin Peirce was an American mathematician, astronomer, and educator who computed the general perturbations......
pencil
pencil, in projective geometry, all the lines in a plane passing through a point, or in three dimensions, all the......
Penrose, Roger
Roger Penrose is a British mathematician and relativist who in the 1960s calculated many of the basic features......
percentage
percentage, a relative value indicating hundredth parts of any quantity. One percent (symbolized 1%) is a hundredth......
percentile
percentile, a number denoting the position of a data point within a numeric dataset by indicating the percentage......
Perelman, Grigori
Grigori Perelman is a Russian mathematician who was awarded—and declined—the Fields Medal in 2006 for his work......
perfect number
perfect number, a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper divisors. The smallest perfect number......
Perlis, Alan Jay
Alan Jay Perlis was an American mathematician and computer scientist. He was the first winner, in 1966, of the......
permutations and combinations
permutations and combinations, the various ways in which objects from a set may be selected, generally without......
perturbation
perturbation, in mathematics, method for solving a problem by comparing it with a similar one for which the solution......
Petty, Sir William
Sir William Petty was an English political economist and statistician whose main contribution to political economy,......
Peuerbach, Georg von
Georg von Peuerbach was an Austrian mathematician and astronomer instrumental in the European revival of the technical......
Pfaff, Johann Friedrich
Johann Friedrich Pfaff was a German mathematician who proposed the first general method of integrating partial......
Philolaus
Philolaus was a philosopher of the Pythagorean school, named after the Greek thinker Pythagoras (fl. c. 530 bc).......
pi
pi, in mathematics, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The symbol π was devised by British......
Picard, Charles-Émile
Charles-Émile Picard was a French mathematician whose theories did much to advance research in analysis, algebraic......
Pichai, Sundar
Sundar Pichai is an Indian-born American executive who was CEO of both Google, Inc. (2015– ), and its holding company,......
planimeter
planimeter, mathematical instrument for directly measuring the area bounded by an irregular curve, and hence the......
Planudes, Maximus
Maximus Planudes was a Greek Orthodox humanities scholar, anthologist, and theological polemicist in the controversy......
Plateau problem
Plateau problem, in calculus of variations, problem of finding the surface with minimal area enclosed by a given......
Platonic solid
Platonic solid, any of the five geometric solids whose faces are all identical, regular polygons meeting at the......
Playfair, John
John Playfair was a Scottish geologist and mathematician known for his explanation and expansion of ideas on uniformitarianism—the......

Mathematics Encyclopedia Articles By Title