Mathematicians Of The Day

21st October



On this day in 1854 Florence Nightingale embarked for the Crimea with thirty-eight nurses: ten Roman Catholic Sisters, eight Anglican Sisters of Mercy, six nurses from St John's Institute, and fourteen from various hospitals.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Martin Gardner
Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality. That is that entire universe is made of matter, obviously. And matter is made of particles. It's made of electrons and neutrons and protons. So the entire universe is made out of particles. Now what are the particles made out of? They're not made out of anything. The only thing you can say about the reality of an electron is to cite its mathematical properties. So there's a sense in which matter has completely dissolved and what is left is just a mathematical structure.
Focus: The Newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America 14 (6), December 1994.