Snezana Lawrence
@snezanalawrence
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Historian of mathematical sciences. Latest book "A Little History of Mathematics", Yale UP, April 2025. Also @mathshistory. Follows not endorsements.
England, Middlesex University
Joined February 2011
And now for something completely different! The cover of my new book has been revealed! And of course you can pre-order it. The book will be in the shops 8th April.
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Look what just dropped on my desk today! As well as the news that a Thai-language edition will also be available in a not too distant future.
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Carl Friedrich Gauss received #otd in 1799, doctorate at age 22 for his dissertation giving the first correct proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. Here's a very nice explanation of it
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Srinivasa Aiyanger Ramanujan was born in Erode, India in 1887, and #dotd in 1920. He was only 32. Ramanujan was one of those rare minds who managed to produce, within his short life, some of the most interesting mathematics we have seen.
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Maths is good for you I always thought! Thinking about this and making the history of mathematics accessible for everyone has resulted in the book #LittleHistoryofMathematics. now the translation into Korean is to come I'm very pleased to say in the next two years!
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What is your favourite mathematical invention/discovery?.
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If you are interested in the history of modern mathematics, this should be a good recommendation to your university library
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Butterfly theorem in motion: when two end points of the segment PG move at equal speed, they produce this wonderful concoction of a curve
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Paul Erdős died in September 1996. Here he is enjoying being himself
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Women in Mathematics Day: Maria Gaetana Agnesi studied a curve which is now generally known as the Witch of Agnesi. Here's a little film I had much joy making
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Bob Burn, a mathematics educator, has died last week. I will remember him mostly for being a kind soul who I met when I first started a phd. He gave me this great book which is a treasure trove for nice problems in the area, with a little history for good measure.
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If you are interested in IMO & AI, this is the video to watch: Terence Tao at IMO 2024: AI and Mathematics
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Jaques Hadamard (1865-1963), #botd did important work in mathematics: prime number theorem, partial differential equations, elasticity, geometrical optics, hydrodynamics and boundary value problems, wrote the wonderful book 'The Mathematician's Mind'.
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King Charles III is, I'm glad to say, interested in the history of mathematics. Here we are, sitting in the Royal Institution in 2012, discussing the bridges of Königsberg and the beginnings of graph theory (you can just about make out the diagram in front of me).
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Have a nice weekend all! Maybe visit some math(s) bookshops next week (virtually of course)? More to follow on that from Monday.
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Today is birthday of Srinivasa Ramanujan, #botd in 1887 (d 1920). What better way to celebrate than by reading some of his manuscripts and letters to Hardy (1877-1947) here
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John Colson, an English mathematician, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge dotd in 1760, whose mis-translation of Agnesi's description of a curve 'la versiera' gave us the famous 'witch of Agnesi'. Here's that famous curve played to some music
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Happy New Year! 2021 = 43 x 47 is a product of two consecutive primes; the last time that was the case was 1763, when Bayes Theorem was stated in 'An Essay towards solving a Problem in the Doctrine of Chances'
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Bertrand Russell, who died on this day 50 years ago was a mathematician, philosopher and writer. A godson of John Stuart Mill (who I'm reading at the moment), Russell gave Reith lectures in 1948, well worth some hours of your time
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Happy birthday to Emmy Noether #botd in 1882, who is pictured here, sitting amidst her friends and smiling, who knows perhaps celebrating her birthday in 1931? With Paul Dubreil and his wife Marie-Louise Jacotin-Dubreil, and Hans Heilbronn. More about them in the thread. 1/4
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Today is the birthday of Felix Klein, mathematician and great educationalist and populariser of mathematics. #botd in 1849, he constructed models of non-Euclidean geometries in 1871, popularising these to mathematicians. Now we have a Felix Klein prize for contribution 1/n
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Abraham de Moivre was #botd in 1667, and apparently predicted his own death on 27 November 1754. We owe such delights as (cosx+i*sinx)^n and the approximation to the binomial distribution by the normal distribution in the case of a large number of trials; 1/n
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Happy birthday to Maria Gaetana Agnesi, an Italian mathematician born in Milan on this day in 1718. She translated Newton's 'Principia' into English and published a book 'Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana' with examples to illustrate how calculus works 1/3
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Jules Henri Poincaré was #botd in 1854; the last generalist in mathematics some say, a great mathematician and correspondent with many mathematicians from less known places. Here's Poincaré with his sister when he probably didn't know he'd end up as a mathematician
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One of the greatest minds, Alan Turing, #dotd in 1954. Having helped the war effort by his work on Enigma machine, and having laid the foundations of theoretical computer science, he was prosecuted because of his sexuality and eventually committed suicide. He is now 1/n
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I encourage everyone who is the least bit interested in contemporary mathematics to see, by 12th May (Women in Mathematics Day) this wonderful documentary about Maryam Mirzakhani, "Secrets of the Surface" for free. Click on the link to get information .
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Today is btd of Claude E Shannon (1916-2001) whose MIT thesis 'A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits' on the use of Boole's algebra to switching circuits is probably the most important Master's thesis ever written. You can read it here
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How mathematicians send postcards to their colleagues and friends - a card from Sierpiński (of the triangle fame) to Fréchet dated 17th Nov 25
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Benoit Mandelbrot was born on this day in 1924 (d. 2010), largely responsible for our interest in, and knowledge of fractal geometry applications. Here's a record of him talking about fractals in 2010, the year in which he died.
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Zygmunt Janiszewski, often called the 'father of Polish mathematics' was #botd in Warsaw. He was quite a young father, as he died aged only 31 from influenza, in 1920. His doctoral supervisor was Lebesgue, and one of his examiners Fréchet (other, Poincaré). 1/4
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Happy #IWD2021 - celebrating all the female mathematicians whose names we may not know - and here is an image of a universal femme mathematique
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Happy birthday to Donald Knuth!! the inventor of LaTex, mathematician, a computer scientist, and an incredibly interesting person, very glad to have met him. Highlight from this little video "I don't use it myself. " 😮
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a friend shared this on another media site - isn't it wonderful? Penrose's lectures are inspiration every time
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Frank Morley #botd in 1860, came up in 1899 or 1900 with a lovely little theorem which is now named after him. Here's a little demonstration of it #geometersketchpad
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Being mainly self-taught this is not usual, in fact it is pretty astonishing. If you'd like to see some of his thoughts on paper, than enjoy this archive from the Cambridge University, where he lived during 1914-19
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Today is the birthday of Henri Cartan, who was one of the original Bourbakistes; born in 1904, he was a prolific mathematician and was awarded many honours (details in thread). Here's a happy moment captured with his friend, colleague, and doctoral student Jean-Pierre Serre.
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My article on Hedy Lamarr is online courtesy of @IMAmaths 'Mathematics Today' .Hope you enjoy it!.
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Albert Einstein died #otd in 1955. A photographer went and took photos of his office, and of the funeral. Even with this passage of time they are still poignant with the surprise and uncertainty almost tangible on friends' faces
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Happy birthday to John Dee, who was #botd in 1527. In his Preface to Euclid's "Elements" he said: "Many other arts also there are which beautify the mind of man: but of all other none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called Mathematicall" (1570).
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Having zoom lectures and meetings is like being in a way in Flatland - and moving between rooms is certainly making the experience of Flatland very real
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On this day, π as some would have it (3.14 in US calendar, although 14.3 in UK), Albert Einstein was born in 1879, Wacław Sierpiński in 1882, and Stephen Hawking died in 2018. Perhaps instead of π we celebrate with a cutting of Sierpiński's triangle in original paper.
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Jacob Bernoulli was botd in 1655 was enchanted, among other things, with a mathematics of spirals and the logarithmic spiral he called 'spira mirabilis'; he wanted it to be depicted on his grave-stone. Unfortunately that didn't go that smoothly. Image from my book, chapter 3
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Mathematics is like. the clip that tells you one of the best descriptions of mathematics, by one of the most important mathematicians of contemporary world, Andrew Wiles. @Wiles_1953 @hollykrieger
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@fermatslibrary His book 'Souvenirs d'apprentissage' (Apprenticeship of a Mathematician) is a super-highly recommended read for both those entering the profession and considering themselves to be mathematicians
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John Edensor Littlewood was #botd in 1885 in Rochester, Kent, England. He is reported to have said "Try a hard problem. You may not solve it, but you will prove something else" - a good reminder as I speak to colleagues today about mathematical competitions (of all kinds).
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Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) #otd in 1796, began his scientific diary with a construction of regular 17-gon. Five years later, he proved that it is possible do to it with Euclidean tools but didn't publish; Pierre Wantzel (1814-1848) proved it in 1837, 1/3.
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An interesting paper that has been promoted recently.
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As promised - today I'll post some recommendations for the history of mathematics books for the festive season. Just in case you want to snuggle with a good book and chill, or need some ideas for buying presents that give pleasures of mathematical kinds. .
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Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) who #dotd in 1543, was a Polish mathematician and astronomer who changed the view of the universe by stating that the Earth moved around the Sun and not the other way around. The manuscript of his book, wonderfully illustrated, has this diagram 1/3
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Here's another great review of my book - really enjoyed doing the interview too!
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With great sadness I report that Peter Neumann, one of the kindest, cleverest people in my field has died this morning. Here he is some years ago talking about his mother Hanna Neumann: A Mathematician in Difficult Times - Dr Peter Neumann
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George Pólya, whose work on problem solving in mathematics, had a lasting change on mathematics education, #dotd in 1985. Here is his less famous but no less important book on 'Patterns of Plausible Inference' .
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James Clerk Maxwell was #botd in 1831, in Edinburgh, Scotland, a mathematician and scientist who worked on electricity, magnetism, optics and on the kinetic theory of gases. You can read some of his papers in this collection
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Happy birthday to Moritz Pasch who was #botd in 1843 Wrocław (then Breslau). He came with some new and surprising observations about Euclidean geometry - one of which is called Pasch's Axiom. Here's an illustration of it
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We have winners, the Fields' Medallists 2022 - they are four young and very talented mathematicians; their work explained in this thread (also in the link, but I'll save you some work there).
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My mum has gone. An extraordinary woman and mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Always love you mum.
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Happy World Logic Day 14th January, a birthday of Alfred Tarski (1901) and the anniversary of the death of Kurt Gödel (1978)
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Happy birthday to Hanna Neumann, a mathematician born on this day in 1914. Here is a lecture about her extraordinary life and work, by her son, dear Peter Neumann, given @GreshamCollege in 2015
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Lothar Collatz #dotd in 1990 in Varna while attending a mathematics conference. Here's Collatz doing some mathematics on a blackboard - the best pictures of mathematicians come in this manner. The conjecture now named after him goes like this: Start from any positive integer.
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Happy birthday to one of the most prolific mathematicians, Leonhard Euler botd 1707. Celebrate by browsing through the wonderful updated Euler Archive with many further links now - translations, books, a journal, and many other delightful resources
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A lovely review of my book by @ZuzanaHucki in the latest 'Mathematics Today'! Glad you enjoyed it Zuzana
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Today is birthday of Edwin Abbott Abbott #botd in 1838. Theologian, Shakespearian scholar, and author of 'Flatland', the famous mathematical novela where everyone lives in a two-dimensional space, much like we have been doing for the past two years 1/3
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Today marks the passing of Pierre (de) Fermat, who #dotd in 1665. He is credited with many theorems, but the most famous one is his 'last' theorem. It was found in the margin of his copy of Diophantus' Arithemetica; stated ~1637. It was repeated in his son's edition 1/n
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Happy birthday to Leibniz! (1646) "nothing in the world can better present and demonstrate this power [of divine] than the origin of numbers, as it is presented here through the simple and unadorned presentation of One and Zero or Nothing". Here's his work
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Joseph-Louis Lagrange was #botd in 1738, so I think I'm going to celebrate the event but doing a little stroll down the Paris street named after him - pick a croissant and coffee on my way to work? If only google streets would allow me to do this.
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Safe to say this is my favourite book of all time: Happy World Book Day!
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@anjaXIII Yugoslavija je bila slobodni svet, slobodniji od zapada i istoka u to vreme (osim naravno Golog Otoka. ). Nema savrsenstva, ali je dobro da ima prijateljstva.
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Georg Cantor was #botd in 1845 in St Petersburg, from Jewish mother and Danish father, he is considered a German mathematician. "Mathematics knows no boundaries" although a general Cantor set is a closed set consisting entirely of boundary points
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"Don't Fall for Babylonian Trigonometry Hype - Scientific American Blog Network" @rmathematicus.
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Today is birthday of Djuro Kurepa, who was #botd in 1907. A leading Yugoslavian mathematician and mathematics educator. Here's Kurepa in front of a blackboard, teaching in 1976 (photo Joseph Konrad photo, MFO copyright)
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Terribly sorry to hear that Ubiratan d'Ambrosio has died yesterday. He was a great contributor to mathematics education and the history of mathematics. Here are some thoughts he wrote about his work on ethno-mathematics RIP Ubiratan.
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He proved that 1^3+2^3+3^3+. n^3=(1+2+3+. n)^2 using inductive method which can be illustrated like this 2/2
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Euclid II:11 Danube gathering momentum. More to come.
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Pierre de Fermat dotd in 1665. Most famous in our time for his 'Last Theorem' he came up with other important things too, like his 'little' one - but I don't have enough space here to write them all down! Here's a documentary to learn more about him
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As a child she read about Archimedes and his death at the hands of a Roman soldier; as an adult, she sometimes signed herself as M. LeBlanc (to hide her gender); when she died her death certificate said 'rentier' (landlady). Mathematician Sophie Germain #dotd in 1831, aged 55.
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Today we celebrate the birthday of Edwin Abbott Abbott #botd in 1838, Marylebone, Middlesex. Abbott, aka A Square, wrote the most famous novella in the history of mathematics, 'Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions' in 1884. Read the whole thing here 1/n
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Happy birthday to Lorenzo Mascheroni, who proved that all Euclidean constructions can be made with compasses alone, wrote a book on it (dedicated it to Napoleon) and published in 1797 in Pavia where he was a professor of algebra and geometry:
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April is dedicated to Emmy Noether in my book 'A New Year's Present. ' - here's a picture of Emmy with some friends (Herman Weyl under the hat); in Nikolausberg (near Göttingen) 1932. Author: Natascha Artin, archives of P. Roquette, Heidelberg and C. Kimberling, Evansville.
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Happy birthday to Buckminster Fuller, #botd in 1895 the futurist, inventor of synergetics, writer, architect, geometrician, whose study of structures has been applied in many sciences. One of the most creative humans of 20th century, in his own words.
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my favourite Archimedean solid - an easy one to construct and apparently known already to Plato (according to Heron)
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"What drove me into math.was not the Mystery of the Unknown.but the mystery of the known." . Marion Deutsche Cohen
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Today is the birthday of Pierre de Fermat #botd 1601, one of the most famous French mathematicians; his most famous quote is "I've found a remarkable proof of this fact, but there is not enough space in the margin to write it", here is his handwriting.
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Frans van Schooten, one of my favourite mathematicians, #dotd in 1660. Here's a little homage film to celebrate one of his mechanical devices
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Giuseppe Peano, mathematician and philologist, #dotd in 1932 in Turin, Italy. Peano discovered a continuous curve, now called after him, that passes through every point of the unit square. Iterate the process, and you get this.
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Grace Emily Chisholm was #botd in 1868. She was a doctoral student of Klein's and completed a thesis on "The algebraic groups of spherical trigonometry" under his supervision. Here is Grace with her son Frank.
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Johann Bernoulli was #botd in 1667. Here's a talk about him and his brother, and their teacher Leibniz, given in 2016. Talk transcript is given in the margins
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Happy birthday to Robert Phelan Langlands! A Canadian mathematician who works in representation theory and number theory - here he is talking about his life and work and why he became a mathematician
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Alicia Boole-Stott, a mathematician of many dimensions, was #botd in 1860. Daughter of Mary Everest and George Boole (of the Boolean algebra fame), she coined the term 'polytope'. I wrote this about her and her mother some years ago
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Collecting history of mathemtatics books for a new project, to establish a history of maths collection for PhD students, so this one came about as I had two copies of it: one I bought and one I got for reviewing & reminded me how much I enjoyed this one
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Happy birthday to Frans van Schooten who was #botd in Leiden, Netherlands, in 1615. Here's a website to marvel at his mathematics, with many interesting constructions and detail (you can automatically translate it into English)
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Celebrating the birthday of CGJ Jacobi (1804-1851) by getting things ready for a lecture on Jacobian matrix (and determinant)
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Today is the birthday of one of my favourite people of all time - Gaspard Monge, #botd in 1746. I've started a website on Monge and his work
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It's Felix Klein's birthday (1849-1925)! A mathematician who knew how to do beautiful geometry. Why not celebrate with a glass of wine from a Klein bottle? ;-) How? you can learn more about it from Cliff who makes these wondrous bottles @numberphile.
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Delighted to tell you that 14th March has been declared the International Mathematics Day!! The IMU has led the project to have this done, and UNESCO has announced that they have approved it at their 40th General Conference. Website is already working @
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On today's anniversary of Norbert Wiener, here's a present to you reader: his famous book
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Mary Everest Boole, niece of George Everest, wife of George Boole, mother of Alicia Boole Stott, born otd in 1832. A fascinating woman who published books on learning mathematics and corresponded with Darwin. Here's her letter to Darwin from 1866
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