6 Well-Known Scientists and Inventors Who Faced Challenges with Math

Do you feel a sense of panic when you have to calculate a tip without your phone’s calculator? If you do, you're not alone. Even some of the brightest minds in science and engineering have struggled with math—and here are just a few examples.

1. Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday, born in 1791 as the child of a blacksmith, is often referred to as the ‘father of electricity.’ Faraday developed the first electric motor and generator, invented the rubber balloon, pioneered refrigeration technology, and demonstrated the Earth’s magnetic field.

Despite his groundbreaking achievements, Faraday felt self-conscious about his limited formal education. His math skills were not particularly strong. In 1846, he proposed that visible light was a form of electromagnetic radiation, but due to his inability to provide mathematical proof, his peers dismissed his idea. It wasn't until 18 years later that Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell developed the equations to support Faraday's theory.

2. Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin had an aversion to math. In his autobiography, he mentioned, “I attempted mathematics,” and added, “but I got on very slowly.” A tutor's guidance in the summer of 1828 did little to enhance his math abilities:

Darwin confessed, “The work was repugnant to me, chiefly from my not being able to see any meaning in the early steps in algebra. This impatience was very foolish, and in after years I have deeply regretted that I did not proceed far enough at least to understand something of the great leading principles of mathematics, for men thus endowed seem to have an extra sense.”

3. Alexander Graham Bell

During high school, Alexander Graham Bell had a complex relationship with math. As biographer Robert V. Bruce notes, the Scottish-born educator and inventor of the telephone “enjoyed the intellectual exercise” of mathematics, but often found himself “bored and hence careless in working out the final answer once he learned the method.” This led to subpar grades. Bell’s mathematical abilities never reached the level of his scientific peers.

4. Thomas Edison

As a student, Edison struggled through Isaac Newton’s seminal *Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica*, which left him with nothing but “a distaste for mathematics from which I never recovered.”

Edison had little knowledge of higher mathematics and relied on the numerical brilliance of Charles Proteus Steinmetz to create the mathematical foundation for Edison’s General Electric Company. Steinmetz, who supervised much of G.E.’s technical product development from upstate New York, was nicknamed the “wizard of Schenectady” by his colleagues. Edison also enlisted Francis Upton to perform calculations for various laboratory experiments, including those related to the incandescent lamp and the watt-hour meter. “I can always hire a mathematician,” Edison once said, “[but] they can’t hire me.”

5. Jack Horner

In the 1970s, Jack Horner uncovered the first known dinosaur eggs in the Western Hemisphere, revolutionizing our understanding of how prehistoric creatures lived and cared for their young.

Horner’s achievements in paleontology must have been a surprise to his elementary school teachers. The Montana native found schoolwork “extremely difficult because my progress in reading, writing, and mathematics was excruciatingly slow.” Horner later flunked college courses and never graduated, complicating his career prospects. He eventually began writing “to every museum in the English-speaking world asking if they had any jobs available, from technician to director.”

The reason for his academic difficulties became clear in 1979 when Horner was diagnosed with dyslexia. “To this day, I struggle with the side effects,” he said. “Self-paced learning is a strategy that helps me cope. Audio books are also a very helpful technology.”

6. E.O. Wilson

In his 2013 book *Letters to a Young Scientist*, naturalist E.O. Wilson shared a challenging personal history with math.

Wilson admitted that he “didn’t take algebra until my freshman year at the University of Alabama … I finally got around to calculus as a 32-year-old tenured professor at Harvard, where I sat uncomfortably in classes with undergraduate students only a bit more than half my age. A couple of them were students in a course on evolutionary biology I was teaching. I swallowed my pride and learned calculus.” Despite catching up, he was “never more than a C student.”

For math-averse science majors, Wilson offered this advice: “The longer you wait to become at least semiliterate in math, the harder the language of mathematics will be to master … But it can be done, and at any age.”