On January 22, 1561, Sir Francis Bacon was
born in London. His father was Sir Nicolas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Seal.
Bacon attended Trinity College Cambridge when he was 12. Shortly afterward,
his father passed away, and left Bacon with very little money. Because of
this, Bacon went into law studies to become a lawyer to pay for his food,
housing, and school. During his studies to become a lawyer, Bacon became a
wild philosopher. He studied space and came up with many math concepts. Later,
Bacon died of Bronchitis on April 9, 1626.
Giovanni Domenico Cassini was an astronomer
during the renaissance era. He was born in Perinaldo, Italy on June 8, 1625.
Up to 1650 he studied astronomy and mathematics in Genua and Bologna. He made
strange observations. like calculating the deformation of Jupiter and its
rotation time. He watched the phases of Venus, discovered by Galileo Galilei
(1564-1642), and also refined the visible surface marks of Mars. On September
14, 1712 Cassini died in Paris.
Born in Torun, Poland, Copernicus was a Polish
astronomer who proposed that the Sun is the center of our solar system, orbited
by all of the planets including the Earth. He also said that the Earth orbited
the Sun annually, turning once daily on its own axis. The official and theological
view of his time, the Ptolemaic model, held that the Earth was the center
of the Solar System. He died in peace, suffering none of the dangers faced
by Galileo and others who shared and proved this Heliocentric system.
Kepler was born in the small town of Weil
der Stadt in Swabia and moved to
nearby Leonberg with his parents in 1576. His father was a mercenary soldier
and his mother the daughter of an innkeeper. He is mainly known for his discovery
of the three laws of planetary motion that bear his name published in 1609
and 1619. He corresponded with Galileo and urged him to make a public stand
on his proofs of the Copernican theories. He calculated the most exact astronomical
tables known, whose continued accuracy did much to establish the truth of
astronomy holding the Sun to be the center of the Solar System.
Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician,
astronomer, alchemist, inventor and natural philosopher who is regarded by
many as the most influential scientist in history.
He advanced every branch of mathematical science then studied, as well as
creating some new subjects. Newton discovered that the spectrum of colours
observed when white light passes through a prism is inherent in the white
light and not added by the prism. His discoveries and laws on gravity, planetary
motion, and many others, lay a foundation for mathematics and the sciences.
Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. His father, Vincenzo
Galilei, was a musician. Galileo's mother was Giulia degli Ammannati. Galileo
was the first of six children. His family was of the poorer nobility. In 1610
Galileo took a position at the Court of the Medici family where he also tutored
their children. With the use of the telescope, a new invention, Galileo proved
the theories of Copernicus, that the sun, not the earth is the center of the
solar system. His writings and teachings brought him to the attention of the
Roman
Inquisition, as the Church held the Earth to be the center. Under a formal
threat of torture, he renounced his findings and spent the rest of his life
under house arrest.
This drawing by Leonardo da Vinci illustrates
the mathematical proportions found in human anatomy as described in the
Golden
Section or Mean. The hexagram framing the Vitruvian Man is more perfectly
shown in the pentagram of Pythagoras, which can be broken into Golden Rectangles.
At the bottom of the drawing is a coded message from Leonardo.
