Mathematicians Of The Day

22nd April



On this day in 1715 (old style), the first total solar eclipse visible in London for 500 years took place. Halley predicted its timing to within four minutes and observed it in London with 3 minutes 33 seconds of totality.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Michael Atiyah
But for most practical purposes, you just use the classical groups. The exceptional Lie groups are just there to show you that the theory is a bit bigger; it is pretty rare that they ever turn up.