Mathematicians Of The Day

27th July



On this day in 1837, Lejeune Dirichlet presented his first analytic number theory paper at a meeting of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He proved the fundamental theorem that bears his name:
Every arithmetical sequence an + b, n = 0, 1, 2, ... of integers, where a and b are relatively prime, contains infinitely many primes.

Click on for a poster.


Quotation of the day

From Johann Bernoulli
I recognise the lion by his claw.

[After reading an anonymous solution to a problem that he realised was Newton's solution.]
Quoted in G. Simmons, Calculus Gems, New York: McGraw Hill, 1992, p. 136.