MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
5th August
On this day in 1900, the engineer Frank Baldwin was awarded a U.S. Patent for his mechanical calculator. This machine was capable of doing a calculation such as in about 20 seconds with eight turns of the handle.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1802: Niels Abel Ⓟ
- 1855: Alfredo Capelli Ⓟ
- 1878: Louis Karpinski Ⓟ
- 1889: Hans Hamburger Ⓟ
- 1936: Ki Hang Kim Ⓟ
Died:
- 1853: Théodore Olivier Ⓟ
- 1872: Charles Eugène Delaunay Ⓟ
- 1910: Julius Petersen Ⓟ
- 1981: Jerzy Neyman Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Niels Abel
The mathematicians have been very much absorbed with finding the general solution of algebraic equations, and several of them have tried to prove the impossibility of it. However, if I am not mistaken, they have not as yet succeeded. I therefore dare hope that the mathematicians will receive this memoir with good will, for its purpose is to fill this gap in the theory of algebraic equations.
