William Oughtred: A Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of Mathematics

by Florian Cajori

Overview

William Oughtred was a seventeenth-century divine who followed mathematics as a pastime. He taught mathematics to a select number of pupils, one of whom was Christopher Wren; he wrote "Clavis mathematicae," a work studied by Isaac Newton, and he invented a number of mathematical instruments, among them, the slide rule. Professor Cajori, professor of mathematics in Colorado College, has written a sketch of his life with a summary of his published works and other achievements.

–Book Review Digest, Volume 12 [1917]

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781663513250
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	06/05/2020
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.26(d)

About the Author

Florian Cajori (February 28, 1859 – August 14[1][2] or 15,[3] 1930) was a Swiss-American historian of mathematics. Cajori's "A History of Mathematics" (1894) was the first popular presentation of the history of mathematics in the United States. Based upon his reputation in the history of mathematics (even today his 1928–1929 "History of Mathematical Notations" has been described as "unsurpassed") he was appointed in 1918 to the first history of mathematics chair in the U.S, created especially for him, at the University of California, Berkeley. He remained in Berkeley, California until his death in 1930. Cajori did no original mathematical research unrelated to the history of mathematics. In addition to his numerous books, he also contributed highly recognized and popular historical articles to the "American Mathematical Monthly."