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Mathematicians Of The Day
23rd April
On this day in 1827, William R Hamilton presented a paper on optics, Theory of systems of rays, to the Royal Irish Academy while still a 21 year-old undergraduate. It is in this paper that Hamilton introduced the characteristic function for optics.
On this day in 2014 Google released a Planck doodle.
On this day in 2014 Google released a Planck doodle.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1628: Johann Hudde Ⓟ
- 1858: Max Planck Ⓟ
- 1907: Ilya Vekua Ⓟ
- 1908: Solomon Grigoryevich Mikhlin Ⓟ
- 1910: Sheila Scott Macintyre Ⓟ
- 1911: Felix Behrend
- 1914: Georgii Polozii Ⓟ
- 1923: Aleksei Alekseevich Dezin Ⓟ
Died:
- 1927: Wilhelm Ahrens
- 1985: Nora Calderwood
Quotation of the day
From Max Planck
An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarised with the ideas from the beginning.
Scientific Autobiography (New York 1949).
