MHF4U1 (Grade 12 Advanced Functions)

Hipparchus was born in Nicaea, Kingdom of Bithynia (modern-day Iznik, Bursa, Turkey), in about c. 190 BC.  He is known as "the father of trigonometry" because he developed trigonometry and compiled trigonometric tables for calculating the eccentricity of the orbits of the Moon and Sun.  He also solved several problems related to spherical trigonometry.  He was believed to be the first to develop a reliable method for predicting the solar eclipses.

Diophantus of Alexandria was an ancient Greek mathematician born between AD 201 and 215 in Alexandria, Egypt.  He passed away at the age of 84.  He is known as "the father of polynomials" who invented polynomials and polynomial functions.  His famous work is "Arithmetica," a series of books on polynomial equations.  Arithmetica consisted of 13 books in total, but only six have survived.  Both Pierre de Fermat and Leonard Euler were inspired by Arithmetica, which allowed them to extend and generate the study of polynomial equations.

John Napier was born in Merchiston Castle, near Edinburgh, Scotland in 1550 and died on April 4th, 1617.  He was a Scottish mathematician and theological writer who invented the concepts of logarithms.  He wrote his powerful mathematical invention in two treatises: (1) Description of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms, published in 1614, and (2) Construction of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms published two years after his death.

Leonardo Euler was born on April 15th, 1707 in Basel, Swiss Confederacy and died on September 18th, 1783.  He was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician, and engineer.  He introduced the concept of a mathematical function and function notation, f(x).  He also defined the constant e, now known as Euler's number.  He also introduced the use of the exponential function and logarithms in analytic proofs.