MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
27th August
On this day in 1760, Leonhard Euler, in his Letters to a German Princess explained how a surveyor uses a level. As an example he asked which end of the straight line between their homes was higher. He discussed the flow of the rivers that connect their homes, but gave the wrong answer to his question.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1703: Augustin Hallerstein Ⓟ
- 1858: Giuseppe Peano Ⓟ
- 1923: Wim Cohen Ⓟ
- 1926: Kristen Nygaard Ⓟ
Died:
- 1898: John Hopkinson Ⓟ
- 1912: Mikhail Egorovich Vashchenko-Zakharchenko Ⓟ
- 1976: Wanda Szmielew Ⓟ
- 1987: Edwin Maxwell Ⓟ
- 1988: Max Black Ⓟ
- 1998: Gonzalo Pérez Iribarren Ⓟ
- 1999: Enzo Martinelli Ⓟ
- 2008: Masayoshi Nagata Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Giuseppe Peano
Questions that pertain to the foundations of mathematics, although treated by many in recent times, still lack a satisfactory solution. Ambiguity of language is philosophy's main source of problems. That is why it is of the utmost importance to examine attentively the very words we use.
