1200 A.D.

 Robert Grosseteste, a graduate from Oxford University, was 32 years old.  He studied geometry, optics, and astronomy.  He used hypothesis and experimentation to solve problems. In optics he understood lenses could be used to magnify distant objects and also made an explanation for the rainbow.  He theorized that the Milky Way was actually a collection of  distant stars that were too small to see individually.
 
Sacrobosco was about 5 years old.  He got his education at Oxford and was later canon of the
Order of St Augustine at the monastery of Holywood in Nithsdale.  In 1221 he became a teacher at the Universitary of Paris, and soon became a professor of mathematics.  He wrote "De Algorismo" which discussed mathematics with positive integers including square and cubic roots.  He also studied astronomy and wrote about the rising and setting of the stars and planets from different locations on the earth.

Albert was just born.  He wrote commentaries on Aristotle's works with his own observations and
experiments.

Leonardo of Pisa, or Fibonacci was 30.  He had a North African education under the Moors.
He introduced the Hindu-Arabic number system into Europe which including a making a number for zero and decimal values.  In "Liber abbaci", he explained how to do arithmetic with decimals.
One of the problems in this book  led to Fibonacci numbers and the Fibonacci sequence.  He published "Practica geometriae" which deals with trigonometry and geometry. In his "Liber quadratorum," he approximates a root of a cubic which was accurate to 9 decimal places.

Author: Charles DeBoer

References:
http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~eww6n/bios/Grosseteste.html
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematical_MacTutor.html
http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibBio.html
 
 

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