Mathematicians Of The Day

23rd July



On this day in 1754, Joseph-Louis Lagrange published his first mathematical work which took the form of a letter written in Italian to Giulio Fagnano.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Étienne Louis Malus
We find that light acquires properties which are relative only to the sides of the ray, -- which are the same for the north and south sides of the ray, (using the points of the compass for description's sake only) and which are different when we go from the north and south to the east or to the west sides of the ray. I shall give the name of poles to these sides of the ray, and shall call polarization the modification which gives to light these properties relative to these poles.