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Mathematicians Of The Day
18th November
On this day in 1752, Christian Goldbach wrote to Euler conjecturing that any odd number could be written in the form where p is prime. A counterexample was found in 1856.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 2014.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 2014.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1844: Albert Wangerin Ⓟ
- 1872: Giovanni Vacca Ⓟ
- 1912: Shigeo Sasaki Ⓟ
- 1913: Alessandro Faedo Ⓟ
- 1916: David Bates Ⓟ
- 1924: Lucien Le Cam Ⓟ
- 1927: John Britton Ⓟ
- 1950: Gilles Pisier Ⓟ
Died:
- 1891: Joseph Wolstenholme Ⓟ
- 1919: Adolf Hurwitz Ⓟ
- 1933: Robert Scott Ⓟ
- 1945: Yakov Davydovich Tamarkin Ⓟ
- 1948: Arthur Hirsch Ⓟ
- 1959: Aleksandr Yakovlevich Khinchin Ⓟ
- 1962: Niels Bohr Ⓟ
- 1985: Henri Garnir Ⓟ
- 1994: Maurice Auslander Ⓟ
- 1994: Nathan Fine Ⓟ
- 2000: Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh Ⓟ
- 2001: Lloyd Williams Ⓟ
- 2002: Edith Hirsch Luchins Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Niels Bohr
A visitor to Niels Bohr's country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teasing the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. Can it be true that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?'
'Of course not,' replied Bohr, 'but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe it or not.'
