One summer evening during a violent thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small boy into bed. She was about to turn off the light when he asked with a tremor in his voice, "Mommy, will you sleep with me tonight?"
The mother smiled and gave him a reassuring hug. "I can't dear," she said. "I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence was broken at last by a shaken little voice saying, "The big sissy."
Seigneur (lord) De La Bigotiere François VièteDied 13 Dec 1603 (born 1540).French mathematician who introduced the first systematic algebraic notation and contributed to the theory of equations. As Henry IV's cryptographer, he broke an elaborate cipher used by Spanish agents. In algebra, he made a number of innovations in the use of symbolism and several technical terms still in use (e.g., coefficient) were introduced by him. By using algebraic rather than geometric methods, Viète was able to solve a number of geometrical problems. In his In artem analyticam isagoge (1591) Viète introduced such basic algebraic conventions as using letters to represent both known and unknown quantities, while improving the notation for the expression of square and cubic numbers. |
