MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
23rd July
On this day in 1754, Joseph-Louis Lagrange published his first mathematical work which took the form of a letter written in Italian to Giulio Fagnano.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1775: Étienne Louis Malus Ⓟ
- 1854: Ivan Śleszyński Ⓟ
- 1863: Kelly Miller Ⓟ
- 1888: Fritz Carlson Ⓟ
- 1912: Rafael Artzy Ⓟ
- 1914: William Wager Cooper Ⓟ
- 1920: Herbert Federer Ⓟ
- 1932: Tom Whiteside Ⓟ
- 1960: Juha Heinonen Ⓟ
Died:
- 1903: Eduard Weyr Ⓟ
- 1938: Ernest Brown Ⓟ
- 1964: Werner Rogosinski Ⓟ
- 1964: Samarendra Nath Roy Ⓟ
- 1993: Florence Nightingale David Ⓟ
- 2006: Frederick Mosteller Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Étienne Louis Malus
We find that light acquires properties which are relative only to the sides of the ray, -- which are the same for the north and south sides of the ray, (using the points of the compass for description's sake only) and which are different when we go from the north and south to the east or to the west sides of the ray. I shall give the name of poles to these sides of the ray, and shall call polarization the modification which gives to light these properties relative to these poles.
