William Oughtred

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Cajori Florian. William Oughtred

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I. OUGHTRED’S LIFE

AT SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY

AS RECTOR AND AMATEUR MATHEMATICIAN

HIS WIFE

IN DANGER OF SEQUESTRATION

HIS TEACHING

APPEARANCE AND HABITS

ALLEGED TRAVEL ABROAD

HIS DEATH

CHAPTER II. PRINCIPAL WORKS

“CLAVIS MATHEMATICAE”

“CIRCLES OF PROPORTION” AND “TRIGONOMETRIE”

SOLUTION OF NUMERICAL EQUATIONS

LOGARITHMS

INVENTION OF THE SLIDE RULE; CONTROVERSY ON PRIORITY OF INVENTION

CHAPTER III. MINOR WORKS

CHAPTER IV. OUGHTRED’S INFLUENCE UPON MATHEMATICAL PROGRESS AND TEACHING

OUGHTRED AND HARRIOT

OUGHTRED’S PUPILS

OUGHTRED, THE “TODHUNTER OF THE SEVENTEENTHCENTURY”

WAS DESCARTES INDEBTED TO OUGHTRED?

THE SPREAD OF OUGHTRED’S NOTATIONS

CHAPTER V. OUGHTRED’S IDEAS ON THE TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS

GENERAL STATEMENT

MATHEMATICS, “A SCIENCE OF THE EYE”

RIGOROUS THINKING AND THE USE OF INSTRUMENTS

NEWTON’S COMMENTS ON OUGHTRED

Отрывок из книги

William Oughtred, or, as he sometimes wrote his name, Owtred, was born at Eton, the seat of Eton College, the year of his birth being variously given as 1573, 1574, and 1575. “His father,” says Aubrey, “taught to write at Eaton, and was a scrivener; and understood common arithmetique, and ’twas no small helpe and furtherance to his son to be instructed in it when a schoole-boy.”1 He was a boy at Eton in the year of the Spanish Armada. At this famous school, which prepared boys for the universities, young Oughtred received thorough training in classical learning.

According to information received from F. L. Clarke, Bursar and Clerk of King’s College, Cambridge, Oughtred was admitted at King’s a scholar from Eton on September 1, 1592, at the age of seventeen. He was made Fellow at King’s on September 1, 1595, while Elizabeth was still on the throne. He received in 1596 the degree of Bachelor of Arts and in 1600 that of Master of Arts. He vacated his fellowship about the beginning of August, 1603. His career at the University of Cambridge we present in his own words. He says:

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Even the opponents of Delamain must be grateful to him for having been the means of drawing from Oughtred such interesting biographical details. Oughtred proceeds to tell how, about 1628, he was induced to write his Clavis mathematicae, upon which his reputation as a mathematician largely rests:

These last passages are instructive as showing what topics were taken up for study with some of his pupils. The chief subject of interest with most of them was algebra, which at that time was just beginning to draw the attention of English lovers of mathematics.

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