A Few Years Later The Naval Academy

I Was Taught The Alphabet By My Aunts Before I Was Four Years Old, And I Was Reading The Bible In Class And Beginning Geography When I Was Six.

Ten Decimal Places Of π Are Sufficient To Give The Circumference Of The Earth To A Fraction Of An Inch, And Thirty Decimal Places Would Give The Circumference Of The Visible Universe To A Quantity Imperceptible To The Most Powerful Microscope.

As The Existence Of A Corps Of Professors Of Mathematics Is Peculiar To Our Navy, As Well As An Apparent, Perhaps A Real, Anomaly, Some Account Of It May Be Of Interest.

James Edward Oliver Might Have Been One Of The Great Mathematicians Of His Time Had He Not Been Absolutely Wanting In The Power Of Continuous Work.

The Result Was That, If It Happened To Clear Off After A Cloudy Evening, I Frequently Arose From My Bed At Any Hour Of The Night Or Morning And Walked Two Miles To The Observatory To Make Some Observation Included In The Programme.