Mathematicians Of The Day

2nd August



On this day in 1784, Lazare Carnot received two gold medals and a prize from the Paris Academy of Science for his Éloge de Vauban, the presentation being by the Prince of Condé.

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Quotation of the day

From Lazare Carnot
... the sciences are like a beautiful river, of which the course is easy to follow, when it has acquired a certain regularity; but if one wants to go back to the source, one will find it nowhere, because it is everywhere; it is spread so much [as to be] over all the surface of the earth; it is the same if one wants to go back to the origin of the sciences, one will find only obscurity, vague ideas, vicious circles; and one loses oneself in the primitive ideas.
Essai sur les machines en général (1783)