The Madras Londoner
Aditya Rishi

Every science that has thriven has thriven upon its own symbols: logic, the only science which is admitted to have made no improvements in century after century, is the only one which has grown no symbols. — Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871)

"THE name is Augustus De Morgan, and I was x years old in the year x^2," is what you heard on Saturday last. "Augustus De Mogran was 43 years’ old in 1849 because no other year in the 19th century is a perfect square (1849 is the square of 43)," says Deepinder Singh. This guy Dippy is a good shot, though I gave it away by saying that Augustus De Morgan was more likely to be found among the 19th-century mathematicians.

Another place where you could have looked for him is the nearest library, but you chose to look on the Internet, where it is correctly mentioned that he had given this puzzling introduction in 1864.

There’s something about Augustus De Morgan that you didn’t notice last week. Like Nelson and Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, he had only one good eye, but a sharp one, which made him a great reformer of mathematical logic. "In 1827, at the age of 21, he applied for the chair of mathematics in the newly founded University College London and, in spite of having no mathematical publication, was appointed,"says his brief biography given on the Internet that many of you have sent as solution. This Nelson of mathematics was born in Madurai which was then Madura in Madras Presidency of British India.

The term mathematical induction first appeared in De Morgan’s article ‘Induction (Mathematics)’ in the Penny Cyclopedia published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge set up by the reformers who founded London University.

Charles Babbage invented analytical engine (the first computer) and Lady Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer programme for him. Augustus De Morgan was a friend of Babbage and he also gave private tuitions to Ada Lovelace, so, maybe, it was he who brought the two together and sparked off the computer revolution. If you read his book Elements of Arithmetic, which was published in 1830, you’d fall in love with numbers, so, if you are single and unattached, go ahead. De Morgan loved libraries, where he would spend hours in heat and dust and would have continued to do so even if he had the Internet for help. Visit libraries, Morgan’s spirit lives there. Read biographies, for therein lies the secret alley to the mind. (Write at The Tribune or adityarishi99@yahoo.co.in.)