The History of Mathematical Tables: From Sumer to Spreadsheets

by Martin Campbell-Kelly, Mary Croarken, Raymond Flood, Eleanor Robson

Overview

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 and are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of articles summarizing the 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 1960s), data tables (i.e. Census tables), professional tables (ie. 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 artifacts whose unifying concept is "the mathematical table".

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198508410
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/11/2003
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	9.21(w) x 6.14(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

University of Warwick

University of Warwick

Oxford University Department for Continuing Education; Fellow of Kellogg College

All Souls College, Oxford

Table of Contents

IntroductionTable and tabular formatting in Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria, 2500 BCE - 50 CE, Eleanor RobsonThe making of logarithm tables, Graham JaggerThe computation factory: de Prony's project for making tables in the 1790's, Ivor Grattan-GuinnessDifference engines: from Muller to Comrie, Michael R. WilliamsThe 'unerring certainty of mechanical agency': machines and table making in the nineteenth century, Doron SwadeTable making in astronomy, Arthur L. NorbergThe General Registry Office and the tabulation of data, 1837 - 1939, Edward HiggsTable making by committee; British table maker 1871 - 1965, Mary CroarkenTable making for the relief of labour, David Alan GrierThe making of astronomical tables in H.M. Nautical Almanac Office, George A. WilkinsThe rise and rise of the spreadsheet, Martin Campbell-KellyBiographical Notes