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Mathematicians Of The Day
6th April
On this day in 1846, James Clerk Maxwell's paper On the description of oval curves, and those having a plurality of foci was read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. These ideas were not entirely new as Descartes had defined such curves before but the work was remarkable for a 14 year old.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1732: José Mutis Ⓟ
- 1749: Samuel Vince Ⓟ
- 1851: Guillaume Bigourdan Ⓟ
- 1875: Michele de Franchis Ⓟ
- 1934: Iossif Vladimirovich Ostrovskii Ⓟ
Died:
- 1528: Albrecht Dürer Ⓟ
- 1829: Niels Abel Ⓟ
- 1938: Aurel Angelescu Ⓟ
- 1993: J C Burkill Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Niels Abel
[About Gauss' mathematical writing style]
He is like the fox, who effaces his tracks in the sand with his tail.
