MacTutorMathematicians Of The Day
25th December
Born:
- 1883: Frances Chick Wood *
- 1884: Sotero Prieto *
- 1900: Antoni Zygmund *
- 1901: Oene Bottema *
- 1905: Gottfried Köthe *
Died:
- 1921: Piers Bohl *
- 1929: Percy MacMahon *
- 1941: Theodor Molien *
- 1944: Wilhelm Kutta *
- 1981: Gheorghe Mihoc *
- 1993: Kentaro Yano *
- 2000: Willard Van Quine *
- 2010: Gavin Brown *
Quotation of the day
From Willard Van Quine
Just as the introduction of the irrational numbers ... is a convenient myth [which] simplifies the laws of arithmetic ... so physical objects are postulated entities which round out and simplify our account of the flux of existence... The conceptional scheme of physical objects is [likewise] a convenient myth, simpler than the literal truth and yet containing that literal truth as a scattered part.
