Mathematicians Of The Day

15th September



On this day in 1739 Leonard Euler wrote to Johann Bernoulli on the general treatment of the homogeneous linear differential equation with constant coefficients. Within a year Euler had completed this treatment.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Al-Biruni
You well know ... for which reason I began searching for a number of demonstrations proving a statement due to the ancient Greeks ... and which passion I felt for the subject ... so that you reproached me my preoccupation with these chapters of geometry, not knowing the true essence of these subjects, which consists precisely in going in each matter beyond what is necessary. ... Whatever way he [the geometer] may go, through exercise will he be lifted from the physical to the divine teaachings, which are little accessible because of the difficulty to understand their meaning ... and because the circumstance that not everybody is able to have a conception of them, especially not the one who turns away from the art of demonstration.
Book on the Finding of Chords