MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
20th February
On this day in 1648, a letter from Pierre de Fermat through Frenicle de Bessy to Kenelm Digby reached John Wallis saying that Fermat had solved equations of the type for all non-square values up to 150. Thus begins the saga of the mis-naming of Pell's equation.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1981.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1981.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1844: Ludwig Boltzmann Ⓟ
- 1860: Matyáš Lerch Ⓟ
- 1865: Charles Cailler Ⓟ
- 1921: Boris Trakhtenbrot Ⓟ
- 1929: Madan Lal Puri Ⓟ
- 1931: John Milnor Ⓟ
Died:
- 1762: Tobias Mayer Ⓟ
- 1778: Laura Bassi Ⓟ
- 1955: Arthur Lee Dixon Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Ludwig Boltzmann
Who ... is not familiar with Maxwell's memoirs on his dynamical theory of gases? ... from one side enter the equations of state; from the other side, the equations of motion in a central field. Ever higher soars the chaos of formulae. Suddenly we hear, as from kettle drums, the four beats 'put n = 5.' The evil spirit v vanishes; and ... that which had seemed insuperable has been overcome as if by a stroke of magic ... One result after another follows in quick succession till at last ... we arrive at the conditions for thermal equilibrium together with expressions for the transport coefficients.
