MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
13th January
On this day in 1865, Henry Perigal debated with John Couch Adams at the Astronomical Club about whether the moon rotates. Perigal wrote in his diary:
Dined with the Astronomical Club; after dinner, the question as to the moon's rotation was put to the vote, when the numbers were: 10 for Adams and rotation, 11 for Perigal and non-rotation.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1845: Félix Tisserand Ⓟ
- 1864: Wilhelm Wien Ⓟ
- 1868: Donald McIntosh Ⓟ
- 1873: Patrick Hardie
- 1876: Luther Eisenhart Ⓟ
- 1876: Erhard Schmidt Ⓟ
- 1900: Gertrude Cox Ⓟ
- 1902: Karl Menger Ⓟ
- 1931: Elias Stein Ⓟ
Died:
- 1988: Carlos Graef Ⓟ
- 2003: Sylvia de Neymet Ⓟ
- 2005: Evgeny Sergeevich Lyapin Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Karl Menger
Nicht etwa, daßbei größerer Verbreitung des Einblickes in die Methode der Mathematik notwendigerweise viel mehr Kluges gesagt würde als heute, aber es würde sicher viel weniger Unkluges gesagt.
Not that, if one were to spread the insight into the methods of mathematics more widely, this would necessarily result in many more intelligent things being said than today, but certainly many fewer unintelligent things would be said.
