Search

Aristarchus's De magnitudinis et distantiis solis et lunae was translated into Latin and printed by Federico Commandino in 1572. All subsequent editions of Aristarchus' treatise, published by John Wallis (1688), Fortia d' Urban (1823) and Thomas Heath (1913), followed Commandino's work. In this article, through a philological approach to the geometric diagrams, I tracked down one of the Greek sources used by Commandino for preparing his Latin version. Commandino pays particular attention to drawing figures. This article sheds light on the interaction between mathematical skills and the drawing of geometric diagrams implemented in his Latin edition of Aristarchus' book. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how John Wallis (1616–1703), Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, used biblical evidence to support his ideas about natural philosophy and mathematics. Examples from Wallis's long career include his calculation of the age of the Earth, his critique of Robert Hooke's theory concerning the origin of fossils, and his debate with Edward Tyson about whether humans are naturally herbivorous or carnivorous. My analysis shows that Wallis's use of biblical history did not necessarily commit him to an intellectually conservative position, but neither did it always encourage him to embrace new ideas. In fact, the truth is somewhere in the middle: I argue that biblical history provided a useful way for Wallis to negotiate between tradition and innovation, to determine which new ideas represented important advances and which were unsubstantiated follies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the pervasiveness of the culture of combination in 17th-century England. It examines early modern permutational systems by analyzing mathematician and cryptographer John Wallis' calculation and his use of letters and anagrams and bells to explain permutations. The combinatorial, anagrammatical extrapolations of change-ringing and church bells are also discussed.

The article offers information on the video game "Who Wears the Crown: An Entire New Game" that was published between 1814 and 1818 by John and Edward Wallis. It mentions about the symbol of the King instead of the King himself, the Wallises give victory a metaphorical gloss; the player's goal should not be to become King, a radical suggestion but to get closer to his milieu.

In 1668–1669 William Neile and John Wallis engaged in a protracted correspondence regarding the nature of motion. Neile was unhappy with the laws of motion that had been established by the Royal Society in three papers published in 1668, deeming them not explanations of motion at all, but mere descriptions. Neile insisted that science could not be informative without a discussion of causes, meaning that Wallis's purely kinematic account of collision could not be complete. Wallis, however, did not consider Neile’s objections to his work to be serious. Rather than engage in a discussion of the proper place of natural philosophy in science, Wallis decided to show how Neile's preferred treatment of motion lead to absurd conclusions. This dispute is offered as a case study of dispute resolution within the early Royal Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the controversy between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz in relation to the invention of calculus in the late 17th century. An evidence that Newton had some ideas about the calculus as early as his famous annus mirabilis in 1666, and hints of calculus in the work of his predecessors in England, in particular the writings of John Wallis and Isaac Barrow, is mentioned.

The article discusses a letter contained in archives of the Bodleian Library related to a proposal by bookseller and publisher Jacob Tonson, the Elder, to Cambridge University Press for an edition of Euclid printed in both Greek and Latin. Other topics include Tonson's membership n the Whig Kit-Cat Club, his relationship with his business partner and nephew Jacob Tonson, the Younger, and scholars including classicist Arthur Charlett as well as mathematicians John Wallis and David Gregory.

John Bulwer's (1606-1656) work was unknown in 17th-18th century France. In 1827 when Joseph-Marie Degérando (1772-1842) became curious about the relation between the methods respectively of Bulwer and John Wallis (1616-1703), the pioneer oral instructor of the deaf in Britain, he had to query Charles Orpen, M.D. (1791-1856) in Dublin because no copy of Bulwer's Philocophus (1648) could be found in Paris. In fact, Theodore Haak (1605-1690) had sent a copy of this book from London to Père Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) in Paris in July 1648, but none of Mersenne's circle could read English, an Mersenne died several weeks later. In that context, this paper presents a comparison of Bulwer's views with those of the Cartesians and Port-Royalists. Wallis claimed he knew of no work on speech for the deaf prior to his own, but he must have known about the Philocophus from the time of its publication, five years before his De Loquela (1653) and nearly 14 years before he began teaching the deaf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses formulas for gamma function introduced by Scottish mathematician James Stirling, named Stirling's formula and Stirling's formula for the Gamma function. It mentions the approach in the first case which relies upon analysis of Wallis formula given by English mathematician John Wallis. It states that the approach that provides estimation to the factorial used in probability and statistical physics.

This paper aims first and foremost to unravel and clarify an interesting 17th century controversy around superposition in projectiles, which allegedly existed between the French Jesuit Honoré Fabri and the Italian physicist and astronomer Giovanni Alfonso Borelli. This conflict – initially described by the English mathematician John Wallis in a letter from 1670 to the secretary of the Royal Society – has been erroneously identified with Fabri's Dialogi physici (1669), a work written in response to Borelli's De vi percussionis (1669). In fact, this “conflict” was nothing but Wallis's account of a contradiction between Borelli's above mentioned work and Fabri's Tractatus physicus de motu locali from 1646, while Fabri's 1669 work expressed views very different from those contained in his Tractatus physicus. I will try here to reconstruct Fabri's change of heart between 1646 and 1669 concerning projectiles and superposition, while tracing the real bone of contention between (the later) Fabri and Borelli – superimposing contrary motions – to its Aristotelian origins. My analysis will lead me to problematize the way modern historians usually interpret the relation between Aristotle's physical thinking and projectile theories of early modern theoreticians (e.g. Nicollò Tartaglia's). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: John Wallis, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford from 1649 to 1703, engaged in a number of disputes with French mathematicians: with Fermat (in 1657–1658), with Pascal (in 1658–1659), with Dulaurens (in 1667–1668), and against Descartes (in the early 1670s). This paper examines not only the mathematical content of the arguments but also Wallis’s various strategies of response. Wallis’s opinion of French mathematicians became increasingly bitter, but at the same time he was able to use the confrontations to promote his own reputation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article profiles English mathematician John Wallis who was credited for discovering a formula for approximating the value of pi. He also introduced the symbol for infinity and the term 'continued fraction,' and published a treatise on conic sections. As Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University, Wallis debated with philosopher Thomas Hobbes and argued for the inclusion of logic in the curriculum. A Wallis Professorship was created at the Oxford Mathematical Institute in 1969.

In Galileo's opinion, his most important argument for the Earth's motion was based on his theory of the tides that combined the Earth's rotation with its orbital motion so that it alternately accelerates and decelerates the sea. His theory deliberately ignored the Moon's influence, which at that time was generally regarded as occult. Galileo's confidence in his theory was strongly reinforced by its providing a mechanical model. That a theory that ignored the Moon's influence could seem plausible is confirmed by comparison with the theories of Bacon and Wallis. That Galileo's theory could seem plausible despite encountering difficulties is confirmed by comparison with Newton's theory, which is deeply flawed by its inclusion of a vertical response to the total tidal force. That many people now regard Galileo's theory as wrong is due to our having absorbed as natural Newton's idea of lunar attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about theorems propounded by doctor in philosophy William Brouncker of England. It also mention the book "Arithematica Infinitorium," by John Wallis who referred to arithmetic of infinites. Wallis had planned to obtain the new formula using method of interpolation assisted by Brouncker. It mentions how Wallis convinced Brouncker hard to publish the proof but all in vain. It also reveals how proof of Brouncker's formula is the starting point of Stieltjes's theory.

During the Renaissance there was an explosion of interest in secret communication when political intrigue and war intersected with new scientific developments. This article shows how leaders of the Scientific Revolution who espoused openness in science, reconciled that ethos with the need for secrecy in affairs of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Lord Brouncker's continued fraction for π' is a well-known result. In this article, we show that Brouncker found not only this one continued fraction, but an entire infinite sequence of related continued fractions for π. These were recorded in the Arithmetica Infinitorum by John Wallis, but appear to have been ignored and forgotten by modern mathematicians. We identify these continued fractions and give a modern derivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the evaluation of the probability integral using the product formula for π of mathematician John Wallis. It explores the standard one-variable calculus method for evaluating the probability integral and functions using the approximation theory. It states that to approximate the integrand in the probability integral can yield a simpler evaluation of integrals. It proves that calculating the limits of the expression can be done using the Wallis product formula for π.

The article focuses on the "General Scholium" of the "Principia Mathematica" by scientist Sir Isaac Newton. It explores the writings and ideas of his contemporary scientists and members of the Royal Society of London, England John Wallis, Christopher Wren, and Christiaan Huygens regarding the third law of motion from Book 1 of the "Principia Mathematica." The author argues that the "General Scholium," as added to the "Principia Mathematica" twenty-six years after it was first published, does not do justice to the remainder of the book's existing scientific and mathematical methodology. A discussion of Newton's use of logical reasoning and philosophical induction is also presented.

The article focuses on the contribution of professor John Wallis in examining the origin of the Royal Society in London, England. It is evident that Wallis devote his life in studying the natural philosophy in the country from 1645-49 with the purpose of examining popular subjects in astronomy, medicine and mechanics. He considers the discussion among physicians and scholars a great origin of the Royal Society. However, his main concern is to uphold and emphasize the intellectual focus of the society noting that it is established based on the social and environmental concerns of scholars and historians.

The article reports on John Wallis' attribution of the startling fact that a hole can be cut in one of two equal cubes large enough to permit that passage of the second cube to Prince Rupert. It has been showed in 1968 that a hole can be cut in one of two equal regular tetrahedra large enough to permit the passage of the second tetrahedron. A more precise notion of "plug" is considered. It shows that every such stopper has the Rupert property. An argument which shows generally that it is possible to cut a hole in any universal stopper through which every other multipurpose plug of the same diameter can be passed is presented.

The article examines geometrical problems encountered in locating or determining the normals to a parabola and the real roots of a cubic. In the book "Tractatus duo, prior de cycloide, posterior de cissoide," John Wallis made the first rectification of a algebraic curve. The transformation of any cubic equation through the horizontal translation do not alter the number of real roots of the equation. Key information about the Neil's parabola and envelope of the family of normals is further presented.

Discusses John Wallis's book 'Arithmetica Infinitorum.'

William Oughtred's Clavis mathematicae, first published in 1631, was regarded for the remainder of the seventeenth century as a classic text in algebra, reprinted, translated, and explained for over 70 years. Yet its content was limited, its style obscure and its notation old-fashioned even when it was first written, and it now seems extraordinary that it should have had such a long life. The early success of the book, and the great esteem in which Oughtred was held by contemporary and later mathematicians, can only be understood in the light of the general state of algebra teaching in England during the first half of the seventeenth century. In later years the book was kept alive by the efforts of one of its greatest admirers, John Wallis. The aim of this paper is to set the story of the Clavis into the wider context of English algebra, and the political background of the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the interpretation of the foundations of calculus by mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Details on Leibniz's formulation of calculus and the doctrine of conatus by mathematician Thomas Hobbes; Objections raised by mathematicians Bernard Nieuwentijt and Michel Rolle against calculus; Response of Leibniz to the criticisms; Examination of the correspondence between Leibniz and mathematician John Wallis.

Presents information on the contribution made by the work of mathematicians John Wallis and Isaac Barrow to the development of mathematics in early modern England. Reference to tension between algebraic techniques and traditional geometric mode of thought; Comparison of Wallis' and Barrow's mathematical styles; Examination of Wallis' and Barrow's views on ancient and modern mathematics.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several articles published within issue on topics including working of the Cromwellian intelligence networks, prison writings of Henry Adis, and intellectual cross-currents that influenced the Mathematician John Wallis.

Information is provided on the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) meeting titled "John Wallis and the Parallel Postulate" held at the Mathematical Institute at Oxford University, England on June 11, 2013 and the meeting titled "Geometry from Euclid to Einstein" organized by BSHM and the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education (OUDCE) held at Oxford University June 22-June 23, 2013. Topics, including the British mathematician John Wallis, the relationship between geometry and art and 19th century non-Euclidean geometry, are discussed.

The article talks about a conference that focuses on the history of mathematician John Wallis dealing with his works on mathematics, music theory or canonics, and cryptography in the 17th century, views on Presbyterianism, and foundations of geometry and parallel postulate.

The article announces centenaries for 2016 including the birthday of English mathematician John Wallis, the publication of Nicolaus Mulerius' textbook "Institutionum astronomicarum libri duo," and the death of Italian geometer Antony Cagnoli.

The article focuses on generalization of Wallis' formula of mathematician John Wallis using Glaisher-Kinkelin and Euler-Mascheroni constants.

A review of the article "John Wallis and the French: His Quarrels with Fermat, Pascal, Dulaurens, and Descartes" by Jacqueline Stedall, which appeared in a 2012 issue of the periodical "Historia Mathematica", is presented.