Mathematicians Of The Day

5th March



On this day in 1616, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, the chief theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, issued a decree which declared Copernicanism false and erroneous. When Galileo subsequently ignored the decree, he was put on trial and held under house arrest for the final eight years of his life.

On this day in 2015 Google released a Mercator doodle.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Julian Coolidge
[Upon proving that the best betting strategy for "Gambler's Ruin" was to bet all on the first trial.]
It is true that a man who does this is a fool. I have only proved that a man who does anything else is an even bigger fool.
Quoted in H Eves Return to Mathematical Circles (Boston 1988).