Home > Gerolamo Cardano

He was born in Pavia, Italy, the illegitimate child of a mathematically gifted lawyer who was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci. In his autobiography, Cardano claimed that his mother had attempted to abort him. Shortly before his birth, his mother had to move from Milan to Pavia to escape the plague; her three other children died from the disease. In 1520, he entered university in Pavia and later in Paduatempera, Two Christians before the Judges hangs in the city's cathedral. The city of Padua (Lat. Patavium It. Padova is the economic and communications hub of the Veneto region in northern Italy. The capital of Padova province, it stands on the Bacchiglio studying medicine. His eccentric and confrontational style did not earn him many friends and he had a difficult time finding work after his studies had ended.

Eventually, he managed to develop a considerable reputation as physician and his services were highly valued at the courts. He was the first to describe typhoid feverThis is about the disease typhoid fever. See typhus for an unrelated disease that because of its similar name is often confused with it. Typhoid Fever is an illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi. It is very common worldwide, and is transmitted.

Today, he is best known for his achievements in algebraAlgebra Algebra (from the Arabic al-jabr meaning reunion connection or completion is a branch of mathematics which may be roughly characterized as a generalization and extension of arithmetic; it also refers to a particular kind of abstract algebra struct. He published the solutions to the cubicA cubic equation is a polynomial equation in which the highest occurring power of the unknown x is the third power. An example is the equation :2''x''3 4''x''2 + 3''x 4 0 and the general form may be written as a x''3 + a x''2 + a x + a 0 where we will ass and quarticIn mathematics, a quartic equation is the result of setting a quartic function equal to zero. An example of a quartic equation is the equation : the general form is : As the fundamental theorem of algebra tells us, a quartic equation always has four solut equations in his 1545Events December 13 Official opening of the Council of Trent (closed 1563) Births Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza Deaths October 18 John Taverner, composer 1545. book Ars magna. Part of the solution to the cubic was communicated to him by Niccolo Fontana TartagliaNiccolo Fontana Tartaglia ( 1499 or 1500 December 13, 1557) was a mathematician, an engineer (designing fortifications), surveyor (of topography, seeking the best means of defense or offense) and bookkeeper from the then Republic of Venice (now Italy). (who later claimed that Cardano had sworn not to reveal it, and engaged Cardano in a decade-long fight), and the quartic was solved by Cardano's student Lodovico FerrariLodovico Ferrari ( February 2, 1522 October 5, 1565) was an Italian mathematician. He began his career as the servant of Gerolamo Cardano. He was extremely bright, so Cardano started teaching him mathematics. Ferrari aided Cardano on his solutions for qua. Both were acknowledged in the foreword of the book. In his exposition, he occasionally used complex numbers even though he did not quite trust them.

Cardano was notoriously short of money and kept himself afloat by being an accomplished gambler and chess player. A book by him about games of chance (Liber de ludo aleae, written in the 1560's but published only in

Cardano invented several mechanical devices including the combination lock, the Cardano suspension consisting of three concentric rings allowing a supported compass or gyroscope to rotate freely, and the Cardan shaft with universal joints, which allows to transmit rotary motion at various angles and is used in vehicles to this day. He made several contributions to hydrodynamics and held that perpetual motion is impossible, except in celestial bodies. He published two encyclopedias of natural science which contain a wide variety of inventions, facts, and occult superstitions. He also introduced the Cardan grille, a cryptographic tool, in 1550.

Cardano's eldest and favorite son was executed in 1560 after he confessed to having poisoned his annoying, mercenary, cuckolding wife. Cardano's daughter was a prostitute who died from syphilis, prompting him to write a treatise about the disease. His other son was a gambler who stole money from him. Cardano himself was accused of heresy in 1570 because he had computed and published the horoscope of Jesus Christ in 1554. Apparently, his own son contributed to the prosecution. He was arrested and had to spend several months in prison, was forced to abjure and give up his professorship. He moved to Rome, received a lifetime annuity from Pope Gregory XIII (after first having been rejected by Pope Pius V) and finished his autobiography. He died there on the day he had (supposedly) astrologically predicted earlier.