Biography of Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890 – 1962), British statistician and geneticist who pioneered the application of statistical procedure to the design of scientific experiments. He received a knighthood in 1952.

Twin sons were born in February 17, 1890, London, England, to Fisher’s father, a British auctioneer. One of them soon died, and Ronald was survivor.

Studied at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Fisher graduated in mathematics in 1913 and spent two years as a statistician with an investment company. Fisher’s interests were broad, including astronomy, mathematics, physics and biology.

In 1918 Fisher published the results of his statistical analysis of characters that show continuous variation, such as human stature. Fisher argued that the effects of dominance and gene interaction would confuse the actual genetic similarity between relatives,

Too short sighted for military services, he taught at Rugby School for the duration of World War 1.

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

Fisher started his mathematical career when he joined Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1919, with the task of sorting and analyzing numerous field data.

By his treatment (partition) of the statistical variance, he was able to distinguish between variation due to environmental factors and that due to genetic factors; the latter were confirmed as being largely determined by the cumulative effects of many separate genes, each inherited according to Mendelian principle.

Fisher subsequently did much to improve experimental methodology by introducing the concepts of random sampling and the technique of analysis of variance, which qualifies sources of variations in an experiment. In the paper ‘On the Mathematical Foundation of Theoretical Statistics’ (1922) he developed a sensible theory of estimation.

His books notably Statistical Methods for Research Workers (1925), The Design of Experiment (1935), and Statistical Tables (1938), form the foundation of statistical analysis in modern biological experimentation.

Fisher’s mathematical study of genes and their mutations populations demonstrated how Mendelian genetics is consistent with the Darwinian view of evolution by natural selection, making The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (1930) one of the seminal works of neo-Darwinism.

Fisher became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1929. In 1933 he was appointed Galton Professor of Eugenics at University College, London, and thereafter professor of genetics at Cambridge University (1943 – 57) until his retirement.

From 1960 he spent the remainder of his life working for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Adelaide, Australia.
Biography of Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

History of calculus

Calculus comes from the Latin word for ‘pebble’ the primitive method of counting whose influence is also visible in the English word ‘calculation’.

The calculus had its origin in the logical difficulties encountered by the ancient Greek mathematicians in their attempt to express their intuitive ideas in the ration or proportionalities of line, which vaguely recognized as continuous, in terms of numbers, which they regarded as discrete.

Indian mathematicians produced a number of works with some ideas of calculus. The formula for sum of the curve was first written by Aryabhata in 500 AD, order to find the volume of a cube, which was an important step in the development of integral calculus.

Methods for finding tangents were pioneered by Pierre Fermant (1601-1665), Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) and others. Barrow – who taught at Cambridge and was a major influence on Newton – was the first to understand the inverse relationship between differentiation and integration.

The analysis of problems, together with the free use of the suggestive infinitesimal and the more extensive application on numerical concept, led within a short time to the algorithms of Newton and Leibniz, which constitute the calculus.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727) developed calculus independently of Leibniz and applied it to the dynamics of bodied in Principia Mathematica, possibly the most important scientific treatise ever written.

He used variational principles to determine the shape of a body moving in air that encounters the least resistance.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was the other inventor of calculus. During his time, he and Newton argued over ten ownerships of their discoveries, each staking a claim as the inventor of calculus. This dogfight eventually involved many prominent mathematicians all over Europe. The dispute later known as the “Great Sulk”

Although both were instrumental in its creation, they thought of the fundamental concept in very different ways. While Newton considered variables changing with time, Leibniz thought of variables x and y as ranging over sequences of infinitely close values. For Newton the calculus was geometrical while Leibniz took it towards analysis.

Together with linear algebra including vector and matrix calculus introduced in the 1950s, calculus toady forms the core of mathematics education at the university levels, and simplified forms thereof fill the mathematics curricula in secondary schools.
History of calculus

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, was the great mathematician and physicist, was born at Woolsthorpe in 1642 and died at Kensington in 1727.

Newton wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in which he described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics.

The Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin: "mathematical principles of natural philosophy", often Principia or Principia Mathematica for short) is a three-volume work by Isaac Newton published on July 5, 1687.

He released his works at age forty-five and years after vowing never to publish again.

It contains the statement of Newton's laws of motion forming the foundation of classical mechanics, as well as his law of universal gravitation and a derivation of Kepler's laws for the motion of the planets (which were first obtained empirically).

Newton demonstrated for the first time the laws of dynamics and gravitation, giving mathematical solutions to most of the problems concerning motion, puzzling scientists. It success established him as the leading scientist of his time throughout the Western world.

The Principia is widely regarded as one of the most important scientific works ever written. It has been claimed that the Principia is the greatest work in the history of the physical sciences.

In it Newton not only put forward a new theory of how bodies move ins space and time, but also developed the complicated mathematics needed to analyze these motions.

By demonstrating that the motion of all bodies was controlled by the same universal laws, Isaac Newton brought to the scientific community a vision of an orderly, harmonious universe which could be understood independent of any supreme being.

A revised edition was published in 1713. A third edition, which had fewer changes than the second edition, was published in 1726, a year before Newton’s death in 1727.

Divided into three books,
*Book I develops general dynamics from a mathematical standpoint for the entire work and begins with the motion of mass particles.
*Book II is a treatise on fluid mechanics.
*Book III is devoted to astronomical and physical problems. Newton addressed and resolved a number of issues including the motions of comets and the influence of gravitation.

Newton's scientific accomplishments were vast. He held a professor ship at Cambridge, represented the University in Parliaments master of the mint reformed the English coinage and for twenty five years was president of the Royal Society.

He was the co-discoverer with Leibniz of differential calculus and the founder of mathematical physics. He made important studies in optics and yet had time to devote to theology, alchemy and chemistry.

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton