MacTutorMathematicians Of The Day
26th January
On this day in 1697, Isaac Newton received Johann Bernoulli's brachistochrone problem. According to Newton's biographer Conduitt, he solved the problem in an evening after returning home from the Royal Mint. Newton:
... in the midst of the hurry of the great recoinage, did not come home till four (in the afternoon) from the Tower very much tired, but did not sleep till he had solved it, which was by four in the morning.See THIS LINK.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1799: Émile Clapeyron Ⓟ
- 1862: Eliakim Moore Ⓟ
- 1945: John Coates Ⓟ
- 1947: András Huhn Ⓟ
Died:
- 1630: Henry Briggs
- 1697: Georg Mohr
- 1895: Arthur Cayley Ⓟ
- 1921: Alexander Pell Ⓟ
- 1929: Constantin Le Paige Ⓟ
- 1937: Robert de Montessus Ⓟ
- 1942: Felix Hausdorff Ⓟ
- 1952: James Craig
- 1974: Thomas Graham Ⓟ
- 2007: Gregory Maxwell Kelly Ⓟ
- 2008: Anthony Spencer Ⓟ
- 2017: Vera Spinadel Ⓟ
- 2020: Louis Nirenberg Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Arthur Cayley
Not that the propositions of geometry are only approximately true, but that they remain absolutely true in regard to that Euclidean space which has been so long regarded as being the physical space of our experience.
