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  September is the month in which the mathematicians Bernhard Riemann (September 17, 1826) and James Sylvester (September 3, 1814) were born. Riemann developed some of the mathematics that Einstein later used in his theory of relativity. Riemann's hypothesis regarding the zeros of the zeta function is one of the most famous unsolved math problems today. Sylvester was born in England. In his 60's, he came to America and became the first math professor at Johns Hopkins University. He also founded the American Journal of Mathematics, the first math journal in the United States.
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 Johan de Witt was born September 24, 1625 in the Dutch Republic. He attended Leiden University where he studied mathematics and law. He made contributions to both geometry and financial mathematics, including actuarial math topics like the value of life annuities. He became the top elected official during the Dutch Golden Age. He was murdered by a mob in 1672, the Rampjaar or disaster year. His death was chronicled in the novel The Black Tulip by Alexander Dumas.
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 There is a paving stone on the sidewalk leading to the New Providence Library with the beginning digits of pi. This proves there are at least two math geeks who visit this library. One of them took this picture! Pi is an irrational number, meaning it cannot be expressed as the ratio (a fraction) of two whole numbers. This was first proved by Johann Lambert in 1768. Over 2,000 years ago, Archimedes showed that pi is between 223/71 and 22/7. The rational number 22/7 is a widely used approximation for pi.
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 The Heat Index (HI) is a measure of how hot it really feels when the effect of humidity is added to the temperature. The formula to calculate the heat index uses many algebra concepts including positive and negative exponents and scientific notation.
HI = -42.379 + 2.04901523T + 10.14333127H - 0.22475541TH - 6.83783×10-3T2 - 5.481717×10-2H2 + 1.22874×10-3T2H + 8.5282×10-4TH2 - 1.99×10-6T2H2 where T = temperature (°F) and H = relative humidity (%). For example, if it is 90°F and the humidity is 90%, it feels like 122°F. |
 "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
"-Eleanor Roosevelt Umm, isn't this a quote that discusses people? |
 World Language students, try reading this site in Spanish or French. |
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