MacTutorMathematicians Of The Day
24th November
Born:
- 1879: Duncan Sommerville (poster)
- 1909: Gerhard Gentzen (poster)
- 1938: Daniel Akyeampong
- 1958: Akos Seress
Died:
- 1837: Bartholomew Lloyd (poster)
- 1900: John McCowan
- 1978: Warren Weaver (poster)
- 1985: Viktor Kupradze
- 1987: Hans Schubert (poster)
- 2008: John Stallings
Quotation of the day
From Gerhard Gentzen
Mathematics is regarded as the most certain of all sciences. That it could lead to results which contradict one another seems impossible. This faith in the indubitable certainty of mathematical proofs was sadly shaken around 1900 by the discovery of the antinomies or paradoxes of set theory. It turned out that in this specialised branch of mathematics, contradictions arise without our being able to recognise any specific error in our reasoning.
Theorem of the day from Robin Whitty