Mathematicians Of The Day

2nd September



On this day in 1752, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Britain. The following day was declared to be 14th September and there were riots by people demanding "Give us back our eleven days!"

The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1943.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Maurice Fréchet
... jai voulu sans doute éviter qu'on puisse appeler compact un noyau solide dense qui n'est agrémenté que d'un fil allant jusqu'à l'infini. C'est une supposition car j'ai complétement oubliè les raisons de mon choix!"

[Doubtless I wanted to avoid a solid dense core with a single thread going off to infinity being called compact. This is a hypothesis because I have completely forgotten the reasons for my choice!]
Writing about his invention of the term "compact" for a topological space.