Mathematicians Of The Day: 23rd August

On this day in 1638, René Descartes, in a letter to Mersenne, proposed his folium ($x^3+y^3=2axy$) as a test case to challenge Fermat's differentiation techniques. To Descartes' embarrassment, Fermat's method worked better than his own.

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Born:

1683: Giovanni Poleni Ⓟ

1778: Jozéf Hoëné Wronski Ⓟ

1797: Jean Claude Saint-Venant Ⓟ

1829: Moritz Cantor Ⓟ

1842: Osborne Reynolds Ⓟ

1873: Zoárd Geöcze Ⓟ

1893: Joseph Ritt Ⓟ

1908: John Todd Ⓟ

1909: Florence Nightingale David Ⓟ

1919: Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin Ⓟ

1928: Israel Gohberg Ⓟ

1929: Anthony Spencer Ⓟ

1956: Andreas Floer Ⓟ

Died:

1806: Charles Augustin Coulomb Ⓟ

1923: Hertha Marks Ayrton Ⓟ

1935: Julius Gysel Ⓟ

1973: Hellmuth Kneser Ⓟ

1988: Hans Lewy Ⓟ

2004: Leopold Schmetterer Ⓟ

2006: Elemér Kiss Ⓟ

2009: Pierre Samuel Ⓟ

2012: James Serrin Ⓟ

2016: Reinhard Selten Ⓟ

2020: Peter Borwein Ⓟ