Mathematicians Of The Day

21st January



On this day in 1665, Samuel Pepys, having acquired a copy of Robert Hooke's Micrographia the day before, stayed up to read it,
Before I went to bed I sat up till two o'clock in my chamber reading of Mr Hooke's Microscopicall Observations, the most ingenious book that ever I read in my life.

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Quotation of the day

From David Eugene Smith
The field of mathematics is now so extensive that no one can [any] longer pretend to cover it, least of all the specialist in any one department. Furthermore it takes a century or more to weigh men and their discoveries, thus making the judgment of contemporaries often quite worthless.
History of Modern Mathematics 1896