MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
26th January
On this day in 1697, Isaac Newton received Johann Bernoulli's brachistochrone problem. According to Newton's biographer Conduitt, he solved the problem in an evening after returning home from the Royal Mint. Newton:
... in the midst of the hurry of the great recoinage, did not come home till four (in the afternoon) from the Tower very much tired, but did not sleep till he had solved it, which was by four in the morning.See THIS LINK.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1799: Émile Clapeyron Ⓟ
- 1861: Amy Rayson
- 1862: Eliakim Moore Ⓟ
- 1945: John Coates Ⓟ
- 1947: András Huhn Ⓟ
Died:
- 1630: Henry Briggs
- 1697: Georg Mohr
- 1895: Arthur Cayley Ⓟ
- 1921: Alexander Pell Ⓟ
- 1929: Constantin Le Paige Ⓟ
- 1937: Robert de Montessus Ⓟ
- 1942: Felix Hausdorff Ⓟ
- 1952: James Craig
- 1974: Thomas Graham Ⓟ
- 2007: Gregory Maxwell Kelly Ⓟ
- 2008: Anthony Spencer Ⓟ
- 2017: Vera Spinadel Ⓟ
- 2020: Louis Nirenberg Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Eliakim Moore
We lay down a fundamental principle of generalization by abstraction:
"The existence of analogies between central features of various theories implies the existence of a general theory which underlies the particular theories and unifies them with respect to those central features...."
