“I go to seek a Great Perhaps”*…
As we’ve noted before, 2016 seemed a bumper year for the Grim Reaper. Jason Crease tested that perception against the data…
It’s become cliché that unusually many prominent people died in 2016. Is this true?…
Find out at “Was 2016 especially dangerous for celebrities? An empirical analysis.“
[Image above: source]
* François Rabelais
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As we usher in the new, we might spare a thought for the first woman in the Western world considered to be a mathematician: Maria Gaetana Agnesi, she died this date in 1799. While she thought and wrote broadly about natural science and philosophy, she is best remembered for her work in differential calculus– perhaps most particularly for her work on the cubic curve now know as the “witch of Agnesi.”
