Mathematicians Of The Day

21st December



On this day in 1807, Joseph Fourier's memoir On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies. was read to the Paris Institute. A committee consisting of Lagrange, Laplace, Monge and Lacroix was set up to report on the work. The committee was dubious about his use of expansion into trigonometric series.

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Quotation of the day

From Eric Temple Bell
The Handmaiden of the Sciences.
[Book by that title.]