Girolamo Cardano (Jerome Cardan)

           Girolamo Cardano was a mathematician, physician and astrologer who was born in 1501 in Pavia. His father, Fazio Cardano, had such expertise in mathematics that it is said that Leonardo Da Vinci consulted with him in regards to questions about geometry.  He was known for a range of things - from giving the first clinical description of Typhus fever to essentially leading the way for  probability.

            Interestingly, Girolamo resorted to gambling to make a living. Because he understood probability so much, he had a greater advantage over his opponents and usually was able to win more than he had lost. However, gambling became an addiction for him. There's a story in which he believed he was being cheated at cards. Cardano became enraged and slashed the face of his opponent with a knife, which he carried with him at all times. He was not a very well-liked man. He also did not always do well with gambling. He had lost so much at one point where he had to pawn his wife's jewelry and some of their furniture. However, with his such great understanding of probability, he had earned the title "Father of Probability" after his his work Liber De Ludo Aleae was published after his death.
 

           Cardano's life was definitely a roller-coaster of ups and downs. After losing just about all that he had, he decided to open a small practice to treat few patients even though he was not a member of the College of Physicians (he had been denied multiple times due to his reputation of being a difficult, uncompromising man who was also an illegitimate son). By doing so, his reputation as a physician grew which eventually led to being consulted by members of the college. Funny how things work out, right? Anyway, all while doing this, he decided he wanted to work on solving cubics and convinced Tartaglia to give him the method in solving cubics. He spent 6 years working on quartic equations by radicals. This sort of created a dispute among Tartaglia and Cardano when Cardano questioned Tartaglia about some of his methods. You can read about that here. Eventually, Cardano published work in which he gave his methods in finding solutions of the cubic and quartic equations.
 

             Cardano is also well known for his work by the name of Ars Magna, which means "The Great Art". It was published in a series he called Opus Perfection, rather "The Perfect Work." He definitely felt very strongly about his work. The Ars Magna contained information about solving algebraic equations. He explained how to solve polynomial equations up to degree 4. He did give credit to Tartaglia for giving him the formula to solve such cubic equations. He also credits Ferrari for figuring out how to solve quartic equations. He also is known for introducing binomial coefficients as well as the binomial theorem. The Ars Magna gives a detailed explanation of multiple mathematical techniques and methods and is an extremely important, yet not very talked about, work of art.
 

         Cardano's life was certainly very interesting and his findings were very important in the study of mathematics. Without writing a novel about all his life entailed, I will finish this blog post with some interesting facts I found about Cardano. I hope you enjoy!

 

• Cardano treated the Archbishop of St. Andrews and became sort of a celebrity.
• His son, Giambatista, poisoned his wife and was sentenced to death.
• It is said that Cardano correctly predicted his death, but apparently he achieved this by committing suicide.
• He invented the Cardano Joint - a universal joint that makes it so it can rotate when it's out of alignment.
• Cardano was jailed with the charge of heresy. Apparently, he had cast the horoscope of Jesus Christ and wrote a book praising Nero.

     Cardano was certainly a character. Thanks for reading!

- Angel