Mathematicians Of The Day
28th August
On this day in 1314, the University of St Andrews was founded. It is the third oldest university in the English-speaking world and was established by a papal bull from Pope Benedict XIII.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1796: Jules Bienaymé Ⓟ
- 1801: Augustin Cournot Ⓟ
- 1862: Roberto Marcolongo Ⓟ
- 1867: Maxime Bôcher Ⓟ
- 1883: Jan A Schouten Ⓟ
- 1897: Theodore Combridge Ⓟ
- 1910: Doris Hellman Ⓟ
- 1910: Tjalling Charles Koopmans Ⓟ
- 1911: Shizuo Kakutani Ⓟ
- 1938: Alexander Animalu Ⓟ
- 1939: John Kingman Ⓟ
Died:
- 1833: Nicolas-François Canard
- 1913: Alexander Macfarlane Ⓟ
- 2005: George Szekeres Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Maxime Bôcher
I like to look at mathematics almost more as an art than as a science; for the activity of the mathematician, constantly creating as he is, guided although not controlled by the external world of senses, bears a resemblance, not fanciful I believe, but real, to the activities of the artist, of a painter, let us say. Just as one cannot become a painter without a certain amount of skill, so one cannot become a mathematician without the power to reason accurately up to a certain point. Yet these qualities, fundamental though they are, do not make a painter or mathematician worthy of the name, nor indeed are they the most important factors in the case. Other qualities of a far more subtle sort, chief among which in both cases is imagination, go to the making of a good artist or of a good mathematician.