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For mathematicians, there is not much in the world whose reasoning cannot be substantiated with calculation. The beings that are in love with numbers and associations, view the world through a numerical lens, as a puzzle to be solved with the right method.
While many mathematicians have graced the world with shocking methods, theorems and formulas, there was one who managed to send people reeling with his prediction. According to an old yet famous tale, mathematician Abraham de Moivre, predicted his own death through calculation. While historians carry on the debate about the story, his legend has been established in numerous books.
A lover of numbers
Abraham de Moivre was a French mathematician who made significant contributions to the world of probabilities.
His work paved the way for future breakthroughs in fields such as insurance, finance and even life sciences. But in the long list of his life achievements lies the most noteworthy of accomplishments: the prediction of his own death.Born in 1667 in Vitry-le-François, France, he was a dedicated mathematician who overcame the setbacks and prejudices that marked his early life due to his Protestant faith in predominantly Catholic France.
Exiled to England, he found rescue in numbers and probabilities and began to make a name and life for himself in the foreign land.His magic was filled with a love for the mathematical and the mystical, a fine line that many maintain a good distance from. A friend of Isaac Newton and a contemporary of Bernoulli, he contributed to Newton's Principia and developed the mathematical theorem known today as "De Moivre's Formula."
His work on complex numbers and trigonometry has been the foundation for many areas of mathematics.
Calculating death
While he spent his life doing calculations, in the final years, he developed a peculiar habit. De Moivre began to sleep for fifteen minutes longer for each passing day. Rather than dismissing this as a sign of old age, de Moivre saw a pattern in these quarter-hour increments. It was based on arithmetic progression.Being a mathematician, he decided to approach the situation systematically, charting his increasing sleep intervals with intrigue.
After careful tracking, he came to a chilling conclusion: his last day would come when he would sleep for twenty-four hours straight. That day, he would breathe his last.While the prediction seemed outrageous, Abraham De Moivre indeed died on November 27, 1754, supposedly after a sleep that lasted twenty-four hours, just as he had predicted.
Tale or truth?
The tale of De Moivre's apt prediction appears in numerous publications, but without an attesting explanation.
Some writers present it as a fact while others treat it as a charming folklore.In 1934, historian Helen M. Walker examined the claim in her biography published in Scripta Mathematica during August 1934. She claimed the tale lacked proof and called the progression purely apocryphal. She found no contemporary confirmation anywhere and cited early biographers such as Jean Paul Grandjean de Fouchy and Matthew Maty for evidence.
Maty’s 1755 biography in Journal Britannique describes declining health.
De Moivre required long daily rest. He sometimes slept for nearly twenty hours. His sight and hearing weakened gradually. After several days confined to bed, he died peacefully in sleep.Other historians followed through. Florian Cajori included it in his 1893 book titled A History of Mathematics and offered no clear source. W. W. Rouse Ball repeated a similar version, again with no supporting reference.Today, historians accept his frailty as a fact and doubt the precise mathematical forecast. But for De Moivre and others, it is a belief that remains firm.
