Mathematicians Of The Day

29th July



On this day in 1808, François Arago escaped from prison in Mallorca where he had been imprisoned as a spy, and started his journey back to France carrying his logbook of measurements of the meridian. After some misadventures he reached France 11 months later.

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Quotation of the day

From David Eugene Smith
The field of mathematics is now so extensive that no one can [any] longer pretend to cover it, least of all the specialist in any one department. Furthermore it takes a century or more to weigh men and their discoveries, thus making the judgment of contemporaries often quite worthless.
History of Modern Mathematics 1896