# Mathematician:Mathematicians/Sorted By Nation/Jordan

For more comprehensive information on the lives and works of mathematicians through the ages, see the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, created by John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson.

The army of those who have made at least one definite contribution to mathematics as we know it soon becomes a mob as we look back over history; 6,000 or 8,000 names press forward for some word from us to preserve them from oblivion, and once the bolder leaders have been recognised it becomes largely a matter of arbitrary, illogical legislation to judge who of the clamouring multitude shall be permitted to survive and who be condemned to be forgotten.
-- Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics, 1937, Victor Gollancz, London

## Jordan

##### Nicomachus of Gerasa $($$\text {c. 60} – \text {c. 120 C.E.}$$)$

Neo-Pythagorean about whom very little is known.

Unusual in that he used the system of Arabic numerals rather than the then-current cumbersome Roman numerals.

Famously made some conjectures about perfect numbers which were soon shown to be false.

Appears to have had more influence than his (perhaps limited) abilities may have merited.
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