4

I am teaching mathematics. And I want to collect as many evidences as I can to let my students know that mathematics is very important.

Accidentally I got a quote from Napoleon as follows.

Napoleon used to say that (quoted from this site):

there cannot be a great nation without great mathematics.

Questions:

  1. Did Napoleon say that?

  2. What is the evidence of the correctness of Napoleon's statement about Mathematics above? In other words, was Napoleon right on his statement at that time (not necessarily up to now)?

kiss my armpit
  • 261
  • 1
  • 3
  • 9
  • What is the source/context of that quote? – ChrisW Aug 09 '14 at 11:28
  • Is the question whether Napoleon said this, or whether the statement is true? – P_S Aug 09 '14 at 12:42
  • @P_S: Actually I want to know the latter because it is more useful for my students. – kiss my armpit Aug 09 '14 at 12:45
  • 2
    I think this might be a hard question to answer. There is no clear definition of a "grand nation", nor is it clear how mathematics has to be involved. – P_S Aug 09 '14 at 12:51
  • 1
    Apart from being dubiously worded, I don't think this is a factual claim. – Sklivvz Aug 09 '14 at 12:55
  • 1
    The two questions are incompatible: the first is a "did he say that" question which is acceptable. The second is clearly unanswerable. As it stands, the question is not acceptable here. – Sklivvz Aug 09 '14 at 13:50
  • A great nation is a state that does all it is supposed to do (I hope that pleases the tea-party, neoliberal, economic anarchist fractions). To do so effectively it needs to keep track of funds, plan infrastructure (Think Minimal-spanning trees for road planning), crypto for secure communication, neo-classical economics, mathematic for architecture and just so much, much more. – user45891 Aug 12 '14 at 20:32

0 Answers0