Mathematicians Of The Day

31st August



On this day in 1682, Michael Rolle published an elegant solution to a difficult problem publicly posed by Ozanam:
Find four integers the difference of any two of which is a perfect square as well as the sum of the first three will be a perfect square.
This brought him public recognition.

The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1950.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Heinrich Tietze
The story was told that the young Dirichlet had as a constant companion all his travels, like a devout man with his prayer book, an old, worn copy of the Disquisitiones Arithmeticae of Gauss.
Quoted in G Simmons Calculus Gems (New York 1992).