MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
4th April
On this day in 1820 Farkas Bolyai wrote to his son János about Euclid's 5th postulate:-
Do not try the parallels in that way: I know that way all along. I have measured that bottomless night, and all the light and all the joy of my life went out there.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1782: Vincenzo Flauti
- 1790: Jean-Baptiste Bélanger Ⓟ
- 1809: Benjamin Peirce Ⓟ
- 1842: Édouard Lucas Ⓟ
- 1863: Jean-Marie Le Roux
- 1868: Philippa Fawcett Ⓟ
- 1884: Thomas MacRobert Ⓟ
- 1902: Eberhard Hopf Ⓟ
- 1939: Mary Lee Wheat Gray Ⓟ
- 1949: Shing-Tung Yau Ⓟ
Died:
- 1617: John Napier Ⓟ
- 1807: Jérôme Lalande Ⓟ
- 1923: John Venn Ⓟ
- 1925: Walter Rouse Ball Ⓟ
- 1949: William Threlfall Ⓟ
- 1961: Simion Stoilow Ⓟ
- 1981: Carl Siegel Ⓟ
- 1991: Hans Reichardt Ⓟ
- 2012: Nikolai Nikolaevich Krasovskii Ⓟ
- 2017: Dan Mostow Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From John Napier
Seeing there is nothing that is so troublesome to mathematical practice, nor that doth more molest and hinder calculators, than the multiplications, divisions, square and cubical extractions of great numbers ... I began therefore to consider in my mind by what certain and ready art I might remove those hindrances.
