A note of appreciation for forgotten Yorkshire maths genius Nicholas Saunderson – The Yorkshire Post says
THE life of the 18th century Yorkshire mathematician and scientist Nicholas Saunderson is an unlikely choice for a stage musical, yet his struggle to achieve greatness in the face of overwhelming odds is one that will never date.
Blinded by smallpox at one year old, he rose to occupy the same Cambridge professorship as Isaac Newton and, more recently, Stephen Hawking – a genius whose story parallels his.
Saunderson is thought to have first discovered the theorem whereby the probability of an event can be determined based on prior knowledge, but his name is most likely unknown to today’s students.
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Hide AdThe sight of his picture on the back of the new £50 note, an outcome for which a campaign is currently under way, would rightly change that.
An unlikely stage stardom in a production that could yet be the Yorkshire Hamilton also seems plausible. Either would be entirely fitting for this most fascinating of figures.