I seem to have garnered a number of new readers in the last twelve months who might be confused by my Christmas Trilogy especially as I have offered no explanation within the posts themselves, so I have decided to present a brief explanation of this Renaissance Mathematicus tradition.
Isaac Newton was born on 25th December 1642 (OS), Charles Babbage was born on 26th December 1791 and Johannes Kepler was born on 27th December 1571 (OS). These three are amongst my favourite figures in the history of science so I developed the habit of writing a post dedicated to some aspect of their life and work on their respective birthdays, hence The Renaissance Mathematicus Christmas Trilogy.
For those interested you can find links to previous years’ posts here:
2012: Christmas Trilogy 2012 Part I: Did Isaac really victimise Stephen? Christmas Trilogy 2012 Part II: Charles and Ada: A tale of genius or exploitation? Christmas Trilogy 2012 Part III: What to do if your mother’s a witch.