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Almagest

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science features a bi-weekly newsletter called The Almagest (pronounced Al’ma jest), and we thought we’d begin by explaining the name we’ve chosen. Around 150 A.D. Ptolemy compiled a vast work on astronomy and mathematics, which was originally called the Mathematical Syntaxis. The book was such an important and significant work that there arose the custom of calling it the Almagest, which means “the greatest.” Now, we don’t believe for a minute that our newsletter will be the greatest of all time, but how could we pass up an opportunity to use such a great name? We hope you’ll enjoy our newsletter, and we trust you’ll become a regular reader.