7th May

Mathematicians Of The Day

7th May

On this day in 1811, Babbage, Herschel and Peacock first met each other to discuss the possible formation of a society whose aim would be to encourage the study of Leibniz's analytical methods in Cambridge. The formal inaugural meeting of the Analytical Society took place very shortly afterwards.

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Born:

1713: Alexis Clairaut Ⓟ
1832: Carl Neumann Ⓟ
1851: Axel Harnack Ⓟ
1854: Giuseppe Veronese Ⓟ
1880: Oskar Perron Ⓟ
1881: Ebenezer Cunningham Ⓟ
1896: Pavel Aleksandrov Ⓟ
1911: Theodor Schneider Ⓟ
1914: Johannes de Groot Ⓟ
1921: Bent Christiansen Ⓟ
1927: Allen Shields Ⓟ

Died:

1842: Pietro Abbati Marescotti
1879: Philip Kelland Ⓟ
1934: Karl Geiser Ⓟ
1949: Leo Harmaja Ⓟ
1954: Henri Mineur Ⓟ
1962: Charles Noble Ⓟ
1963: Theodore von Kármán Ⓟ
1980: Federico Cafiero Ⓟ
1983: Keith Stewartson Ⓟ
2007: Emma Lehmer Ⓟ
2017: Wen-Tsun Wu Ⓟ
2017: Elon Lima Ⓟ

Quotation of the day

From Theodore von Kármán

The scientist describes what is; the engineer creates what never was.

Quoted in A L Mackay, Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London 1994)

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