Mathematicians Of The Day
15th November
Today is the feast-day of St Albertus Magnus. He was canonised in 1931 and in 1941 was made patron of natural scientists by Pope Pius XII.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1986.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1986.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1688: Louis Castel
- 1738: William Herschel Ⓟ
- 1793: Michel Chasles Ⓟ
- 1794: Franz Adolph Taurinus
- 1849: Mary Byrd Ⓟ
- 1894: Mikhail Yakovlevich Suslin Ⓟ
- 1900: László Rédei Ⓟ
- 1907: Edward Marczewski Ⓟ
- 1942: David Crighton Ⓟ
- 1959: Jean-François Le Gall Ⓟ
Died:
- 1280: Albertus Ⓟ
- 1630: Johannes Kepler Ⓟ
- 1761: Giovanni Poleni Ⓟ
- 1869: William Donkin Ⓟ
- 1929: Adolf Kiefer
- 1976: Gheorghe Calugăreănu Ⓟ
- 1996: Basil Rennie Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Albertus
It seems wonderful to everyone that sometimes stones are found that have figures of animals inside and outside. For outside they have an outline, and when they are broken open, the shapes of the internal organs are found inside. And Avicenna says that the cause of this is that animals, just as they are, are sometimes changed into stones, and especially [salty] stones. For he says that just as the Earth and Water are material for stones, so animals, too, are material for stones. And in places where a petrifying force is exhaling, they change into their elements and are attacked by the properties of the qualities [hot, cold, moist, dry] which are present in those places, and in the elements in the bodies of such animals are changed into the dominant element, namely Earth mixed with Water; and then the mineralizing power converts [the mixture] into stone, and the parts of the body retain their shape, inside and outside, just as they were before. There are also stones of this sort that are [salty] and frequently not hard; for it must be a strong power which thus transmutes the bodies of animals, and it slightly burns the Earth in the moisture, so it produces a taste of salt.