John Fauvel

Robin J. Wilson

Raymond Flood

From Ancient Greek times, music has been seen as a mathematical art, and this relationship has fascinated generations. This new in paperback edition of diverse, comprehensive and fully-illustrated papers, authored by leading scholars, links the two fields in a lucid manner that is suitable for students of each subject as well as the general reader.

From Pythagoras to Fractals

Music and Mathematics

Mark McCartney

Andrew Whitaker

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) had a relatively brief, but remarkable life, lived in his beloved rural home of Glenlair, and variously in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, London and Cambridge. His scholarship also ranged wide - covering all the major aspects of Victorian natural philosophy. He was one of the most important mathematical physicists of all time, coming only after Newton and Einstein. In scientific terms his immortality is enshrined in electromagnetism and Maxwell's equations, but as this book shows, there was much more to Maxwell than electromagnetism, both in terms of his science and his wider life. Maxwell's life and contributions to science are so rich that they demand the expertise of a range of academics - physicists, mathematicians, and historians of science and literature - to do him justice. The various chapters will enable Maxwell to be seen from a range of perspectives. Chapters 1 to 4 deal with wider aspects of his life in time and place, at Aberdeen, King's College London and the Cavendish Laboratory. Chapters 5 to 12 go on to look in more detail at his wide ranging contributions to science: optics and colour, the dynamics of the rings of Saturn, kinetic theory, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism and electromagnetism with the concluding chapters on Maxwell's poetry and Christian faith.

Perspectives on his Life and Work

James Clerk Maxwell

Senior Lecturer in Mathematics John Fauvel

Staff Tutor in Computing and Mathematics in the Department for External Studies Raymond Flood

This is the story of the intellectual and social life of a community, and of its interactions with the wider world. For 800 years mathematics has been researched and studied at Oxford, and the subject and its teaching have undergone profound changes during that time. This highly readable and beautifully illustrated book reveals the richness and influence of Oxford's mathematical tradition and the fascinating characters who helped to shape it. The story begins with the founding of the university of Oxford and the establishing of the medieval curriculum, in which mathematics had an important role. The Black Death, the advent of printing, the founding of the university of Cambridge, and the Newtonian revolution all had a great influence on the later development of mathematics at Oxford. So too did many well-known figures: Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren, Edmond Halley, Benjamin Jowett, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, G. H. Hardy, to name but a few. Later chapters bring us to the twentieth century, and the book ends with some entertaining reminiscences by Sir Michael Atiyah of the thirty years he spent as an Oxford mathematician.

800 Years of the Mathematical Sciences

Oxford Figures

Robin Wilson

Der Aufstieg von Mathematik und Astronomie im Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts

Möbius und sein Band

Lord Kelvin was one of the greatest physicists of the Victorian era. Widely known for the development of the Kelvin scale of temperature measurement, Kelvin's interests ranged across thermodynamics, the age of the Earth, the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable, not to mention inventions such as an improved maritime compass and a sounding device which allowed depths to be taken both quickly and while the ship was moving. He was an academic engaged in fundamental research, while also working with industry and technological advances. He corresponded and collaborated with other eminent men of science such as Stokes, Joule, Maxwell and Helmholtz, was raised to the peerage as a result of his contributions to science, and finally buried in Westminster Abbey next to Newton. This book contains a collection of chapters, authored by leading experts, covering the life and wide-ranging scientific contributions made by William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907).

Kelvin: Life, Labours and Legacy

Martin Campbell-Kelly

Mary Croarken

Eleanor Robson

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".

From Sumer to Spreadsheets

The History of Mathematical Tables

Tony Mann

Greenwich has been a centre for scientific computing since the foundation of the Royal Observatory in 1675. Early Astronomers Royal gathered astronomical data with the purpose of enabling navigators to compute their longitude at sea. Nevil Maskelyne in the 18th century organised the work of computing tables for the Nautical Almanac, anticipating later methods used in safety-critical computing systems. The 19th century saw influential critiques of Charles Babbage’s mechanical calculating engines, and in the 20th century Leslie Comrie and others pioneered the automation of computation. The arrival of the Royal Naval College in 1873 and the University of Greenwich in 1999 has brought more mathematicians and different kinds of mathematics to Greenwich. In the 21st century computational mathematics has found many new applications. This book presents an account of the mathematicians who worked at Greenwich and their achievements. Features A scholarly but accessible history of mathematics at Greenwich, from the seventeenth century to the present day, with each chapter written by an expert in the field The book will appeal to astronomical and naval historians as well as historians of mathematics and scientific computing.

The History of Mathematics at Greenwich

Mathematics at the Meridian

Rosie Wilson

The achievements of great mathematical thinkers from ancient times to the modern age are examined through engaging, accessible text. Fascinating profiles of time-measurers like the Mayans and Huygens, arithmeticians like Pythagoras and al-Khwarizmi, logicians like Aristotle and Russell, and many more. Readers can follow along on these thinkers quests to explain the patterns in the world around them and to solve a wide range of theoretical and practical problems.

Great Mathematicians

The mathematical tradition at Oxford is one of the oldest in Britain, and Oxford scholars have been at the forefront of mathematical research for the past eight centuries. This is the story of the intellectual and social life of this community, and of its interactions with the wider world.

Eight Centuries of the Mathematical Sciences

James Clerk Maxwell (1831 -1879) was one of the most important mathematical physicists of all time, coming only after Newton and Einstein.In scientific terms his immortality is enshrined in electromagnetism and Maxwell's equations, but as this book shows, there was much more to Maxwell than electromagnetism, both in terms of his science and his wider life. Maxwell's life and contributions to science are so rich that they demand the expertiseof a range of academics - physicists, mathematicians, and historians of science and literature - to do him justice. The various chapters will enable Maxwell to be seen from a range ofperspectives.Early chapters deal with wider aspects of his life in time and place before looking in more detail at his wide ranging contributions to science, with concluding chapters on Maxwell's poetry and Christian faith. Each chapter is self-contained and can be read independently of the others.

Raymond Flood

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