MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
28th August
On this day in 1314, the University of St Andrews was founded. It is the third oldest university in the English-speaking world and was established by a papal bull from Pope Benedict XIII.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1796: Jules Bienaymé Ⓟ
- 1801: Augustin Cournot Ⓟ
- 1862: Roberto Marcolongo Ⓟ
- 1867: Maxime Bôcher Ⓟ
- 1883: Jan A Schouten Ⓟ
- 1897: Theodore Combridge Ⓟ
- 1910: Doris Hellman Ⓟ
- 1910: Tjalling Charles Koopmans Ⓟ
- 1911: Shizuo Kakutani Ⓟ
- 1938: Alexander Animalu Ⓟ
- 1939: John Kingman Ⓟ
Died:
- 1833: Nicolas-François Canard
- 1913: Alexander Macfarlane Ⓟ
- 2005: George Szekeres Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Maxime Bôcher
... there is what may perhaps be called the method of optimism which leads us either wilfully or instinctively to shut our eyes to the possibility of evil. Thus the optimist who treats a problem in algebra or analytic geometry will say, if he stops to reflect on what he is doing: "I know that I have no right to divide by zero; but there are so many other values which the expression by which I am dividing might have that I will assume that the Evil One has not thrown a zero in my denominator this time."
