imaginary numbers quiz

luca pacioli

leonardo da vinci’s math teacher

omar khayyan

came up with 19 different cubic equations and discovered geometric way of solving cubic equations by intersecting a parabola with a circle

scipione del ferro

math professor, finds how to solve depressed cubic equations, but tells nobody for two decades

antoni fior

del ferro’s student, del ferro told him how to solve depressed cubic on his deathbed

nicolo fontana tartaglia

had stutter so called stutterer in italian, challenged by fior to solve 30 depressed cubics, solved all equations because he learned how to do it before the duel, extends completing the square into three dimension, wrote how to do it in a poem

gerolamo cardano

polymath, tartaglia reveals how to solve depressed cubics but forces him to take oath to not reveal it during his lifetime, cardano found how to turn general cubic into depressed cubic then used tartaglia’s method to solve it, he was a physician not mathematician so he wanted to publish book, found del ferro’s journal, wrote Artis Magna (the great art) crediting del ferro, fior, and tartaglia but tartaglia still hated him because it was called cardano’s method, finds negative numbers with formula asked tartaglia but tartaglia said he was just bad at math when in reality tartaglia had no no idea either

rafael bombelli

used negative numbers

francois veite

used geometric interpretation

rene descartes

came up with term imaginary numbers

leonhard euler

introduces i as sqaure root of -1

erwin schrodinger

shrodinger equation