The 10 Greatest Geniuses of Humanity

The 10 Greatest Geniuses of Humanity

Geniuses are considered people who made a difference at the time they lived and influenced generations.

They are often pioneers in studies and discoveries. Certainly, the list of geniuses is immense, if we consider the different types of science and areas of knowledge.

We made a list of the 10 greatest geniuses of humanity, especially concerning the development of natural sciences, mathematics, chemistry and physics. 

Euclid

Euclid of Alexandria (about 300 BC) was a Greek Platonic mathematician, teacher and writer.

He is often referred to as “the father of geometry”, on account of his work “ The Elements ”, which is a postulate composed of thirteen volumes, five of them on plane geometry and three on geometry in space. Plane geometry is called Euclidean for this very reason.

Euclid of Alexandria is considered the father of geometry.

“The Elements” is considered one of the most influential works in mathematics. In it, Euclid presented in a coherent way all the Greek knowledge existing at the time about arithmetic, algebra and geometry.

In physics, Euclid contributed to the so-called geometric optics.

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos (approximately 570 BC – 495 BC) was a Greek mathematician and philosopher. The word mathematike is believed to have originated with Pythagoras, who was the first to conceive of it as a system of thoughts based on deductive proofs.

Around 518 BC, he went to Crotona, in what is now Italy, and founded the Pythagorean School .

His and his disciples’ interest was in the study of the properties of numbers, which were seen as the reason for all things.

Pythagoras considered numbers to be the reason for all things.

For the Pythagoreans, numbers represented harmony, even the cosmos being governed by mathematical equations.

Investigating mathematical relationships, Pythagoras and his disciples discovered several fundamentals of physics, mathematics, including relationships between mathematics and musical notes (harmonic series).

His greatest discovery, however, was in the field of geometry and refers to the relationship between the sides of any right triangle. The discovery was called the “ Pythagorean Theorem ”.

For his accomplishments, Pythagoras is commonly referred to as “the father of mathematics”.

Archimedes

Archimedes of Syracuse (287 BC – 212 BC) was a Greek physicist, mathematician, engineer and astronomer who is considered one of the leading names and geniuses in the science of Classical Antiquity.

It was he who discovered the law of buoyancy, the law of leverage, and many others. His contributions to Physics are considered the basis of statics and hydrostatics.

Archimedes is considered one of the main thinkers of Classical Antiquity.

No wonder he is considered one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity. He discovered the spiral that bears his name, formulas for calculating solids of revolution, an approximation to the number π and among other discoveries.

Archimedes was of fundamental importance in the emergence of modern science, having influenced names such as Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was an English theologian, astronomer, alchemist, philosopher, mathematician and scientist.

 

Isaac Newton became known for the three laws that bear his name and were of fundamental importance to physics.

The work “ Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy ”, from 1687, is considered one of the most influential in the history of science. It is in this book that he describes Newton’s three Laws (principle of inertia, fundamental principle of dynamics, and principle of action and reaction) and the law of universal gravitation, which were fundamental to classical mechanics.

 

In a survey carried out by the Royal Society, a British institution dedicated to the promotion of scientific knowledge, Newton was considered the scientist who had the most impact in the history of science.

Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine Lavosier (1743-1794) is a French chemist regarded as “the father of modern chemistry”.

He became notable for being on this list of geniuses, in particular, for having formulated the law of conservation of masses, which says that in any closed chemical or physical system, matter cannot be created or eliminated. What there is is the transformation from one form to another. Thus, you cannot create something out of nothing and neither can you transform something into nothing.

Antoine Lavoisier was the first to say that nothing is completely created or destroyed, but everything is transformed.

His most famous quote was: “ In nature nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed ”.

The chemist also has fundamental discoveries for science, such as the conclusion that water is not a pure substance, but composed of two elements. He also discovered hydrogen, which is one of the gases in atmospheric air, and noted that oxygen was a component of combustion.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was a German theoretical physicist who settled in the United States.

Einstein is considered one of humanity’s geniuses and it’s no wonder. He developed the theory of general relativity, which is one of the foundations of modern physics along with quantum mechanics.

The physicist, however, became best known for creating the formula for equivalence between mass and energy: E = mc² , which was once considered the most famous equation in the world.

Einstein had his work recognized by being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his important contributions to theoretical physics, especially for the discovery of the photoelectric effect, which was fundamental to quantum theory, which is a branch of physics dedicated to the study of the behavior of matter and energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles.

In his lifetime, Einstein published several works. Among them “ Why the war ?”, together with Sigmund Freud and “ The world as I see it ”.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian physicist, astronomer, philosopher and mathematician.

Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, and was instrumental in the scientific revolution. He developed the first systematic studies of uniformly accelerated motion and pendulum motion.

Galilei discovered the law of falling bodies, which says that all bodies fall with constant acceleration, since the effect of gravity on bodies that are at the same height is equal. This law can only be observed in a vacuum because of the difference in the density of bodies.

Galileo Galilei made important discoveries that were fundamental to the revolution in science.

He is considered one of the founders of modern science because of his contributions to physics and astronomy, as well as his pioneering spirit in formulating the experimental method, which later established guidelines for scientific reasoning.

In his work “ Messageiro Sidereal ” he defended the hypothesis of Nicolaus Copernicus that the Earth revolved around the Sun (Heliocentric Theory). Because of this, he was persecuted by the Holy Inquisition and forced to publicly deny what he believed.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II issued a formal request for the mistakes made by the Catholic Church over the past 2,000, including the trial of Galilei by the Holy Inquisition.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a scientist, anatomist, mathematician, engineer, painter, sculptor, artist and botanist.

Da Vinci is described as the model of Renaissance man, for having intense curiosity and desire to acquire knowledge. This is reflected in his inventiveness and innumerable talents, which contributed to his being on this list of geniuses.

Leonardo da Vinci acted brilliantly in several areas and is considered one of the most remarkable painters in the world. His most famous painting is Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda.

He is considered one of the greatest painters of all time, being the author of famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper . The drawing of the Vitruvian Man made by him is also considered a cultural icon and a very relevant study on the proportions of the human body.

Da Vinci left more than five thousand pages of studies, an immeasurable legacy for modern science. He was also a precursor of equipment such as the cannon, submarine, bicycle and parachute.

Rene Descartes

René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French mathematician, physicist and philosopher who became notable on account of his revolutionary studies.

In mathematics, he is credited with creating coordinate systems and analytical geometry, as he was the first mathematician to combine algebra and geometry. For this feat, he is called “the father of modern mathematics”.

Descartes is also considered the “father of rationalism” and “modern philosophy”, as he broke with Aristotelian knowledge.

René Descartes revolutionized modern science by questioning and seeking proof of why things happen.

His contribution to the natural sciences is fundamental. Unlike the ancient Greeks and scholastics who considered that things exist because they should be, Descartes included doubt in the scientific study.

He said that something can only exist if it is proven. Thus, his method had four basic steps, which are: verify, analyze, synthesize and enumerate.

His scientific rationalism influenced philosophers of his generation and also of later ones, as it laid the foundations for the modern scientific method.

It was Descartes who uttered the famous phrase “ I think, therefore I am!”, with this he sought to prove the existence of the self.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) was a British physicist and cosmologist, who made major contributions to science.

Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death. He had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that progressively paralyzes the body, but does not affect cognitive functions.

The diagnosis of the disease occurred when he was 21 years old. Gradually, he lost movement in his arms, legs, and musculature as a whole, including the strength to hold his head up.

The importance of Stephen Hawking’s studies in Physics is compared to other geniuses such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

The physicist’s mobility was nil and he had been using a voice synthesizer since 1985 to communicate. In 2013, the synthesizer tracked your eye movement to generate words.

The limitations did not stop him from important studies that made him a select list of geniuses, highlighting his contributions to theoretical physics and studies on black holes.

Hawking’s studies in physics are compared to the likes of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.

He also managed to get successful books on the publishing market. His most famous work is “ A Brief History of Time ”, from 1988, one of the best-selling works of popular science in recent years.