Guided only by their feeling for symmetry, simplicity, and generality, and an indefinable sense of the fitness of things, creative mathematicians now, as in the past, are inspired by the art of mathematics rather than by any prospect of ultimate usefulness.
Loci: Loci: Convergence
On This Day ...
Important events from the history of math that happened on this day:
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November 18th
| 1812 | Jean Victor Poncelet (1788-1867), a military engineer, was captured while Napoleon's army was retreating from Moscow. He profited from this enforced leisure (until his release in June 1814) by resuming his study of mathematics. While in Russia, he did important work on projective geometry.
More information about: Jean Victor Poncelet Projective Geometry |
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| 1883 | The telegraphic signals sent out daily at noon from the Naval Observatory at Washington, D.C., were changed to standard time, a system adopted on the initiative of the American Railway Association. Standard time was suggested for the U.S. in 1869 by Charles Ferdinand Dowd, a schoolmaster from Saratoga, N.Y., but was not adopted then. He suggested dividing the continent into four time zones each one hour or fifteen degrees of longitude wide. Standard Railroad Time had four time zones, Eastern, Central, Western, and Pacific. Congress made these official in 1918. Some citizens grumbled about "railroad tyranny" and tampering with "God's time."
More information about: Naval Observatory Standard Time in the US |
| 1962 | Niels Bohr died in Copenhagen, Denmark. The famous physicist studied atomic structure and radiation.
More information about: Niels Bohr |
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