MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
4th April
On this day in 1820 Farkas Bolyai wrote to his son János about Euclid's 5th postulate:-
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1971.
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.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1971.
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 Ⓟ
- 1968: Amie Wilkinson Ⓟ
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
In computing tables, these large numbers may again be made still larger by placing a period after the number and adding ciphers. ... In numbers distinguished thus by a period in their midst, whatever is written after the period is a fraction, the denominator of which is unity with as many ciphers after it as there are figures after the period.
