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The Almagest ruled astronomy for 1,400 years; his Geography guided Columbus.

Mathematician and astronomer murdered by a mob; symbol of learning against zealotry.

Gave place-value, an accurate π, and a rotating Earth in 499 CE.

Wrote Consolation of Philosophy awaiting execution; medieval Europe's bridge to antiquity.

First to treat zero as a number and define rules for negatives.

Gave the world algebra and, through his own name, the algorithm.

Founded optics and the experimental method in the Book of Optics.

Measured Earth's radius to within 1% and wrote the first comparative anthropology of India.

Solved cubics geometrically, reformed the calendar, wrote the Rubaiyat.

Tusi couple; his planetary models likely reached Copernicus.

Sultan-astronomer whose star catalogue stood unmatched for two centuries.

Moved the Earth from the centre of the universe.

Pointed a telescope upward and broke the authority of the ancients.

Three laws of planetary motion; every satellite orbit obeys them.

Cogito ergo sum and coordinate geometry.

Probability theory, hydrostatics, and a mechanical calculator at nineteen.

Showed that one law governs the apple and the Moon alike.

Calculus notation we still use, and binary arithmetic.

Translated Newton into French and established kinetic energy as mv².

The most prolific mathematician ever; wrote much of modern notation.

The Prince of Mathematicians; number theory, geodesy, magnetism.

Wrote the first algorithm intended for a machine and saw computing beyond numbers.

Four equations that unified electricity, magnetism and light — hence radio and Wi-Fi.

Proved there are different sizes of infinity.

Noether's theorem links symmetry to conservation laws — the backbone of modern physics.

Self-taught genius whose notebooks still yield theorems a century later.

Computer architecture, game theory, quantum foundations.

Incompleteness theorems set permanent limits on formal systems.

Worked out at nineteen why some stars must collapse into black holes.

Defined what a computer is, then was destroyed by the country he saved.

Information theory: the bit, and the mathematics of all digital communication.

His cube became a global object lesson in group theory.