Who was the strongest mathematician to serve as US President?
 
I just read in Ulysses's S Grant's Memoirs that war in Mexico stopped
him from teaching math at West Point.  Not too bad. 
 
I suppose Thomas Jefferson? He definitely had a few math books around
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/becites/main/jefferson/88607928_ch25.html.
I wonder what "Emerson's Fluxion's" is about.  Also "Sir Isaac Newton's
tables for the Renewals of Leases" sounds promising from the Jefferson
library.
 
It would be nice if Thomas Jefferson weren't the best at everything, but
if that's the way it is, we have to live with it. 
 
I remember Jimmy Carter frequently being described as a "nuclear engineer,"
but that was when it was popular to think that Ford was a bumbler. 
 
 
Thane Plambeck
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