Mathematician:Gerolamo Cardano

Mathematician

Italian mathematician, physician, inventor, astrologer and gambler.

• Published systematic methods for solving cubic and quartic equations. Neither were supposedly discovered by him:
  • The formula for solving the cubic was passed to him by Tartaglia, but (as he discovered later) was in fact originally discovered by Scipione del Ferro.
  • The formula for solving the quartic was discovered by his student Ferrari (and bears Ferrari's name).
• Wrote the first systematic treatment of probability.

Nationality

Italian

History

• Born: September 24, 1501
• 1570: Imprisoned for heresy for publishing the horoscope of Jesus Christ.
• Died: September 21, 1576

Theorems

• Cardano's Formula

Results named for Gerolamo Cardano can be found here.

Publications

• 1545: Artis Magnae, Sive de Regulis Algebraicis, in which he published what is now called Cardano's Formula for solving the cubic, and Ferrari's Method for solving the quartic. Also known as Ars Magna.
• 1643: De propria vita (Of My Life) (posthumous)
• 1663: Liber de ludo aleae (The Book of the Game of Dice) (posthumous; written in the 1560's), a treatise on probability.

Notable Quotes

These quantities are "truly sophisticated" and that to continue working with them would be "as subtle as it would be useless".

-- on complex numbers in his Ars Magna

Also known as

Also known as Girolamo Cardano, Jerome Cardan (the French and English form of his name), Hieronimo (or Hieronymo) Cardano, or Hieronymus Cardanus (the Latin form).

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Gerolamo Cardano": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1971: Allan Clark: Elements of Abstract Algebra ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction
• 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.10$: Kepler ($\text {1571}$ – $\text {1630}$): Footnote $3$
• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): A List of Mathematicians in Chronological Sequence
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cardano, Gerolamo (1501-76)
• 2004: Ian Stewart: Galois Theory (3rd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Historical Introduction: Polynomial Equations
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cardano, Gerolamo (1501-76)
• 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $4$: Lure of the Unknown: Cubic equations
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cardano, Girolamo (1501-76)