Subject: Mathematics Book Title: The History of Mathematical Tables
The History of Mathematical Tables
From Sumer to Spreadsheets
Campbell-Kelly, Martin (Editor),
Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick
Croarken, Mary (Editor),
Visiting Fellow, Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick
Flood, Raymond (Editor),
University Lecturer in Computing Studies and Mathematics, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education; Fellow of Kellog College
Robson, Eleanor (Editor),
Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
Print publication date: 2003
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2007 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-850841-0 doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.001.0001 |
|
|
Abstract:
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 chapters summarizing the technical, institutional, and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (e.g., Census tables), professional tables (e.g., insurance tables), and spreadsheets — the most recent tabular innovation. This book captures the history of tables through eleven chapters. The contributors describe the various information processing techniques and artefacts whose unifying concept is ‘the mathematical table’.
Keywords: information processing, mathematical tables, Shuruppag, mathematical activity, table making, printed tabular matter, modern computing, data tables, Census tables, spreadsheet Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
1.
Tables and tabular formatting in Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria, 2500 bce–50 ce
2.
The making of logarithm tables
3.
History of actuarial tables
4.
The computation factory: de Prony's project for making tables in the 1790s
5.
Difference engines: from Müller to Comrie
6.
The ‘unerring certainty of mechanical agency’: machines and table making in the nineteenth century
7.
Table making in astronomy
8.
The General Register Office and the tabulation of data, 1837–1939
9.
Table making by committee: British table makers 1871–1965
10.
Table making for the relief of labour
11.
The making of astronomical tables in HM Nautical Almanac Office
12.
The rise and rise of the spreadsheet
Index
|
|
|
|
|
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.001.0001
Citation Export