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Thus metaphysics and mathematics are, among all the sciences that belong to reason, those in which imagination has the greatest role. I beg pardon of those delicate spirits who are detractors of mathematics for saying this .... The imagination in a mathematician who creates makes no less difference than in a poet who invents.... Of all the great men of antiquity, Archimedes may be the one who most deserves to be placed beside Homer.
Discours Preliminaire de L'Encyclopedie, Tome 1, 1967. pp 47 - 48.
Loci: Convergence
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HOM SIGMAA 2009 Award Winners
HOM-SIGMAA, the History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the MAA, conducts an annual writing contest for undergraduate students in the history of mathematics. The winning papers for 2009 are as follows:
1st place: Nathan McLaughlin of the University of Montana
"The Mathematical Optics of Sir William Hamilton: Conical Refraction and Quaternions"
2nd place: Tim Chalberg of Pacific Lutheran University
"Regression Analysis: A Powerful Tool and Riveting Drama"
Honorable Mention: Amy Buchmann of Chapman University
"A Brief History of Quaternions and the Theory of Holomorphic Functions of Quaternionic Variables"
The papers may be downloaded by clicking on their titles. HOM-SIGMAA congratulates the winners.