MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
29th January
On this day in 1670, James Gregory wrote to John Collins:
Mr Barrow, in his Optics, showed himself a most subtle geometer, so that I think him superior to any that ever I looked upon: I long exceedingly to see his geometrical lectures, especially because I have some notions upon that same subject by me. I entreat you to send them to me presently as they come from the press, for I esteem the author more than you can easily imagine.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1774: Olinthus Gregory Ⓟ
- 1810: Eduard Kummer Ⓟ
- 1817: William Ferrel Ⓟ
- 1888: Sydney Chapman Ⓟ
- 1928: Joseph Kruskal Ⓟ
- 1951: Olabisi Ugbebor Ⓟ
Died:
- 1715: Bernard Lamy Ⓟ
- 1905: François Folie Ⓟ
- 1905: Robert Tucker Ⓟ
- 1910: James Taylor Ⓟ
- 1984: John Whittaker Ⓟ
- 1999: Viktor Aleksandrovich Gorbunov Ⓟ
- 2010: Giovanni Prodi Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Eduard Kummer
It is greatly to be lamented that this virtue of the real integers that they can be decomposed into prime factors which are always the same for a given integer does not belong to the complex integers [of arbitrary cyclotomic number fields], for were this the case, the entire theory, which is still labouring under many difficulties, could easily be resolved and brought to a conclusion.
