Math geeks have a fondness for solving, well, math problems. The most famous of these is Fermat’s last theorem. Pierre de Fermat wrote in 1637 that he had “a truly marvellous (sic) proof” to a long unexplained math problem. Mathematicians had been trying to figure out why the Pythagorean theorem only works for a2 + b2 = c2. If you use any integer above 2, that equation never works. For almost 400 years, mathematics have tried to solve Fermat’s marvellous proof. Andrew Wiles published his very complicated solution in 1995, now only waiting for a good editor to come along.
Socrates was so smart, he had an entire method of learning named after him. The Socrates Method adapts the Greek philosopher’s knack for irritating people into proving themselves wrong by constantly asking questions to dig deeper into issues. For all his contributions to basically founding Western philosophy, Socrates was lazy and didn’t write anything down. Thankfully he had a hard working intern named Plato to do keep meticulous records long before Microsoft Access.
Even smart people were impressed by Issac Newton. Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is considered one of the greatest works of science where Newton explains his theory of gravity and his famous laws of motion. Mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange called Newton the greatest genius to ever live and poet Alexander Pope wrote after Newton’s death “Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night;
The Bard has shaped the English language and storytelling more than any single person. William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems collecting a prolific body of work making him still the most performed writer to this day. But it’s not just English class than benefits from Shakespeare. Fantasy and science fiction has long drawn on the Bard’s unique contributions from Tolkien to Lost (some think Lost parallel’s Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”). So every time you obscenely puke from your eyeball, remember you never could have told anybody without Shakespeare.
Galileo achieved his great fame as the father of modern science, often promise women at local taverns he would name stars and planets after them. The mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and all-around know-it-all made waves when he supported the theories of nut job Nicolaus Copernicus, claiming the Earth revolved around the Sun rather than the other way around. The Catholic Church charged Galileo with heresy for his beliefs, but let him off easy cause of his age, punished with house arrest for the remainder of his life. But Galileo had the last laugh. Almost 350 years later, Pope John Paul II admitted Galileo might have been right.
Before we could convince our parents to buy us those awfully violent comic books, fairy tales dominated bed time reading. Thanks to the creative genius of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, children around the world have had classic stories to read and see turned into Disney cartoons. The Grimm Brothers wrote “Cinderella,” “Snow White”, and “Rapunzel” around the same time as Andersen wrote “The Little Mermaid,” “Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “The Princess and the Pea.” Think where we’d be if Disney didn’t have these guys to copy and not pay royalties to.
The abacus and slide rule were good starts, but Wilhelm Schickard invented the first automatic calculator called the “Calculating Clock” in 1623. The Calculating Clock is basically the first, known computer and could perform basic arithmetic with user input. Sadly the Clock was not programmable, forcing geeks to wait until 1941 for a system to port Linux to.
