The Library

The humans behind the maths

Forty-one people across three thousand years. Tap a portrait to read what they were curious about — and which lab their idea turned into.

Tower Lab

$1 0^{n}$
no historical likeness exists
Aryabhata
476 – 550

Forge Lab

$+$
no historical likeness exists
Liu Hui
c. 220 – 280

Frost Lab

$- n$
no historical likeness exists
Brahmagupta
c. 598 – 668

Strip Lab

$\frac{a}{b}$
no historical likeness exists
Bhaskara II
1114 – 1185

Mill Lab

Grace Hopper
1906 – 1992

Shape Atelier

$△$
no public-domain likeness found
Karen Uhlenbeck
1942 – present

Measure Lab

$A = bh$
no historical likeness exists
Heron of Alexandria
c. 10 – 70

Move Lab

$△$
no public-domain likeness found
Marjorie Rice
1923 – 2017

Triangle Lab

Solid Lab

$V - E + F$
no public-domain likeness found
Alicia Boole Stott
1860 – 1940

Balance Lab

Square Lab

$x^{n}$
no historical likeness exists
al-Karaji
c. 953 – c. 1029

Tile Lab

$△$
no public-domain likeness found
Blaise Pascal
1623 – 1662

Bloom Lab

Life Lab

$□$
no public-domain likeness found
John Horton Conway
1937 – 2020

Sieve Lab

$p$
no historical likeness exists
Eratosthenes of Cyrene
c. 276 – c. 194 BCE

Arrow Lab

$v$
no public-domain likeness found
William Rowan Hamilton
1805 – 1865

Cast Lab

$P (E)$
no public-domain likeness found
Stella Cunliffe
1917 – 2012

Hundred Lab

$p %$
no public-domain likeness found
Luca Pacioli
c. 1447 – 1517

Tally Lab

$\overset{x}{ˉ}$
no public-domain likeness found
Florence Nightingale
1820 – 1910

Tree Lab

$(∙)$
no public-domain likeness found
Florian Cajori
1859 – 1930

Wheelwright Lab

$π$
no historical likeness exists
Zu Chongzhi
429 – 500 CE

Shadow Lab

$h : s$
no historical likeness exists
Thales of Miletus
c. 624 – c. 546 BCE

Wave Lab

$x^{5}$
no public-domain likeness found
Niels Henrik Abel
1802 – 1829

Line Lab

René Descartes
1596 – 1650

Curve Lab

Slope Lab

Tangent Lab

$2 x + b$
no public-domain likeness found
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
1718 – 1799

Area Lab

imagined
Archimedes of Syracuse
c. 287 – 212 BCE

Basin Lab

$\frac{a ^{3}}{3}$
no public-domain likeness found
Bonaventura Cavalieri
1598 – 1647

Limit Lab

Augustin-Louis Cauchy
1789 – 1857

Complex Lab

$i$
no historical likeness exists
Rafael Bombelli
1526 – 1572

Heat Lab

Fractal Lab

$z \to z^{2} + c$
no public-domain likeness found
Benoît Mandelbrot
1924 – 2010

Portraits are public-domain artworks from before 1928. Where these portraits came from →