"De Morgan was explaining to an actuary what……" — W. W. Rouse Ball
"De Morgan was explaining to an actuary what was the chance that a certain proportion of some group of people would at the end of a given time be alive; and quoted the actuarial formula, involving p [pi], which, in answer to a question, he explained stood for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. His acquaintance, who had so far listened to the explanation with interest, interrupted him and exclaimed, 'My dear friend, that must be a delusion, what can a circle have to do with the number of people alive at a given time?'"
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W. W. Rouse Ball
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10 Quotes by W. W. Rouse Ball
W. W. Rouse Ball has 10 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Newton took no exercise, indulged in no amusements, and worked incessantly, often spending eighteen or nineteen hours out of the…
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Throughout his life Newton must have devoted at least as much attention to chemistry and theology as to mathematics. ...
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[Gauss calculated the elements of the planet Ceres] and his analysis proved him to be the first of theoretical astronomers…
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Foreshadowings of the principles and even of the language of [the infinitesimal] calculus can be found in the writings of…
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The manner of Demoivre's death has a certain interest for psychologists. Shortly before it, he declared that it was necessary…
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For other great mathematicians or philosophers, he [Gauss] used the epithets magnus, or clarus, or clarissimus; for Newton alone he…
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'My dear friend, that must be a delusion, what can a circle have to do with the number of people…
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Biot, who assisted Laplace in revising it [The Mécanique Céleste] for the press, says that Laplace himself was frequently unable…
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Babbage ... gave the name to the [Cambridge] Analytical Society, which he stated was formed to advocate 'the principles of…
See all 10 quotes by W. W. Rouse Ball »
More Acquaintance Quotes
This quote is filed under Acquaintance Quotes,
one of 299 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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A powerful attraction exists, therefore, to the promotion of a study and of duties of all others engrossing the time…
— Charles Babbage
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Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a…
— Richard Bach
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The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation; his friends, his pleasures,…
— Honore de Balzac
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Almost all my middle-aged and elderly acquaintances, including me, feel about 25, unless we haven't had our coffee, in which…
— Martha Beck
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Early to bed and early to rise is a bad rule for anyone who wishes to become acquainted with our…
— George Ade
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There's sort of an open offer to work with a guy in Los Angeles who does big band and orchestra…
— Jello Biafra
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The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.
— Ambrose Bierce
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Acquaintance. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
— Ambrose Bierce
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Experience - the wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already…
— Ambrose Bierce
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I believe we shall come to care about people less and less. The more people one knows the easier it…
— Ambrose Bierce
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I don't have friends, I have thousands of acquaintances. No friends. I figured I had a wife and children.
— Charles Bronson
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Farewell all relations and friends in Christ; farewell acquaintances and all earthly enjoyments; farewell reading and preaching, praying and believing,…
— Donald Cargill
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