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Thomas Baxter (mathematician)
Thomas Baxter ( 1732–1740), was a schoolmaster and mathematician who published an erroneous method of squaring the circle. He was derided as a "pseudo-mathematician" by F. Y. Edgeworth, writing for the ''Dictionary of National Biography''. When he was master of a private school at Crathorne, North Yorkshire, Baxter composed a book entitled ''The Circle squared'' (London: 1732), published in octavo. The mathematical book begins with the untrue assertion that "if the diameter of a circle be unity or one, the circumference of that circle will be 3.0625", where the value should correctly be pi. From this incorrect assumption, Baxter proves fourteen geometric theorems on circles, alongside some others on cones and ellipses, which Edgeworth refers to as of "equal absurdity" to Baxter's other assertions. Thomas Gent Thomas Gent (1693–1778) was a printer and writer, born in Ireland, who spent most of his working life in York. He authored several works, mostly histories, but was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Squaring The Circle
Squaring the circle is a problem in geometry first proposed in Greek mathematics. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the area of a circle by using only a finite number of steps with a compass and straightedge. The difficulty of the problem raised the question of whether specified axioms of Euclidean geometry concerning the existence of lines and circles implied the existence of such a square. In 1882, the task was proven to be impossible, as a consequence of the Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem, which proves that pi (\pi) is a transcendental number. That is, \pi is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients. It had been known for decades that the construction would be impossible if \pi were transcendental, but that fact was not proven until 1882. Approximate constructions with any given non-perfect accuracy exist, and many such constructions have been found. Despite the proof that it is impossible, attempts to square the circle have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Peacock (antiquary)
Edward Peacock (22 December 1831 in Hemsworth''Men of the time'', 1875 – 31 March 1915'Obituary: Edward Peacock', ''Notes and Queries'', Second series XI, 10 April 1915, 292) was an English antiquarian and novelist. Biography Edward Peacock, the only son of the agriculturalist Edward Shaw Peacock (1793–1861), of Bottesford Manor, near Brigg, Lincolnshire,''The Catholic Who's Who & Yearbook'', 1910''Lincolnshire at the opening of the 20th century'', 1907 was educated by private tutors. Influenced by John Henry Newman, he converted to Catholicism as a young man. In 1853 he married Lucy Anne (died 1887), daughter of John S. Weatherall of New York City, a Captain in the United States Navy; they had seven children- their son, Max, and daughter, Mabel Peacock, also published works on the folklore of Lincolnshire. He lived at Bottesford Manor and Kirton-in-Lindsey, and in 1869 was appointed Justice of the Peace for the Parts of Lindsey. Their son Adrian was a clergyman and ecologist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudomathematics
Pseudomathematics, or mathematical crankery, is a mathematics-like activity that does not adhere to the framework of rigor of formal mathematical practice. Common areas of pseudomathematics are solutions of problems proved to be unsolvable or recognized as extremely hard by experts, as well as attempts to apply mathematics to non-quantifiable areas. A person engaging in pseudomathematics is called a pseudomathematician or a pseudomath. Pseudomathematics has equivalents in other scientific fields, and may overlap with other topics characterized as pseudoscience. Pseudomathematics often contains mathematical fallacies whose executions are tied to elements of deceit rather than genuine, unsuccessful attempts at tackling a problem. Excessive pursuit of pseudomathematics can result in the practitioner being labelled a crank. Because it is based on non-mathematical principles, pseudomathematics is not related to attempts at genuine proofs that contain mistakes. Indeed, such mistakes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
People From Hambleton District
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18th-century British Mathematicians
The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading and human trafficking expanded across the shores of the Atlantic, while declining in Russia, China, and Korea. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures, including the structures and beliefs that supported slavery. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. Western historians have occasionally defined the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work. For example, the "short" 18th century may be defined as 1715–1789, denoting the period of time between the death of Louis XIV of France and the start of the French Revolution, with an emphasis on directly interconnected events. To historians who expand th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Year Of Death Missing
A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calendar yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Gent
Thomas Gent (1693–1778) was a printer and writer, born in Ireland, who spent most of his working life in York. He authored several works, mostly histories, but was financially unsuccessful. His poetry and the woodcut illustrations in his publications are considered to be of a low standard, but his historical accounts, as well as details in his autobiography, are considered to be valuable historical resources. Biography Thomas Gent was born to parents of ordinary backgrounds. His father was an Englishman, and he was baptised a Presbyterian. His parents ensured he educated himself during his childhood, and in 1707 he began an apprenticeship with Stephen Powell, a printer of Dublin. Gent's apprenticeship was an unhappy one, and in 1710 he absconded, and stowed away on a ship, arriving in Wirral, England, then travelled to London where he took up an apprenticeship under Edward Midwinter. After completing his apprenticeship in 1713, he worked briefly for a Mrs. Bradford, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dictionary Of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. First series Hoping to emulate national biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as the '' Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co., planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen, then editor of the ''Cornhill Magazine'', owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from the United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the ''Biographia Britannica'', the name of an earlier eigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellipse
In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special type of ellipse in which the two focal points are the same. The elongation of an ellipse is measured by its eccentricity e, a number ranging from e = 0 (the limiting case of a circle) to e = 1 (the limiting case of infinite elongation, no longer an ellipse but a parabola). An ellipse has a simple algebraic solution for its area, but only approximations for its perimeter (also known as circumference), for which integration is required to obtain an exact solution. Analytically, the equation of a standard ellipse centered at the origin with width 2a and height 2b is: : \frac+\frac = 1 . Assuming a \ge b, the foci are (\pm c, 0) for c = \sqrt. The standard parametric equation is: : (x,y) = (a\cos(t),b\sin(t)) \quad \text \quad 0\leq t\leq 2\pi. Ellip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cone (geometry)
A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines connecting a common point, the apex, to all of the points on a base that is in a plane that does not contain the apex. Depending on the author, the base may be restricted to be a circle, any one-dimensional quadratic form in the plane, any closed one-dimensional figure, or any of the above plus all the enclosed points. If the enclosed points are included in the base, the cone is a solid object; otherwise it is a two-dimensional object in three-dimensional space. In the case of a solid object, the boundary formed by these lines or partial lines is called the ''lateral surface''; if the lateral surface is unbounded, it is a conical surface. In the case of line segments, the cone does not extend beyond the base, while in the case of hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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