The History of Mathematical Tables: From Sumer to Spreadsheets - Rilegato

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0198508417 ISBN 13: 9780198508410

Casa editrice: OUP Oxford, 2003

Riassunto

The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and printed tabular matter are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of articles summarising the technical, institutional and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late twentieth century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (eg. Census tables), professional tables (eg. insurance tables), and spreadsheets - the most recent tabular innovation.

The book is presented in a scholarly yet accessible way, making appropriate use of text boxes and illustrations. Each chapter has a frontispiece featuring a table along with a small illustration of the source where the table was first displayed. Most chapters have sidebars telling a short "story" or history relating to the chapter.

The aim of this edited volume is to capture the history of tables through eleven chapters written by subject specialists. The contributors describe the various information processing techniques and artefacts whose unifying concept is "the mathematical table".

Su questo libro

Recensione

The book itself is the fruit of a very good idea of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, which was to have a conference and then a book on the theme of mathematical tables, and the editors are to be congratulated on a handsome volume on the social history of mathematics. (Notes and Records of The Royal Society)

Contenuti

• Introduction
• Eleanor Robson: Table and tabular formatting in Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria, 2500 BCE - 50 CE
• Graham Jagger: The making of logarithm tables
• Ivor Grattan-Guinness: The computation factory: de Prony's project for making tables in the 1790's
• Michael R. Williams: Difference engines: from Muller to Comrie
• Doron Swade: The 'unerring certainty of mechanical agency': machines and table making in the nineteenth century
• Arthur L. Norberg: Table making in astronomy
• Edward Higgs: The General Registry Office and the tabulation of data, 1837 - 1939
• Mary Croarken: Table making by committee; British table maker 1871 - 1965
• David Alan Grier: Table making for the relief of labour
• George A. Wilkins: The making of astronomical tables in H.M. Nautical Almanac Office
• Martin Campbell-Kelly: The rise and rise of the spreadsheet
• Biographical Notes

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: OUP Oxford
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0198508417
• ISBN 13: 9780198508410
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Lingua: Inglese
• Numero di pagine: 372
• Redattore: Campbell-Kelly Martin, Croarken Mary, Flood Raymond, Robson Eleanor
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile