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Royal Mathematical School
Royal Mathematical School is a branch of Christ's Hospital, founded by Charles II. It is currently Christ's Hospital's Maths Department. History It was established so that potential sailors could learn navigation and mathematicians could train at the school. Samuel Pepys was closely involved in the foundation, in 1673, with Jonas Moore. The School was integrated into Christ's Hospital, with boys who were pupils being selected aged 11 or 12 and prepared for a career in the Royal Navy. There was a short-lived new mathematical school within Christ's Hospital, backed by Isaac Newton, and taught by Humphry Ditton; it ran from 1706 to 1715, when Ditton died, but then was closed down. James Hodgson was master of the Royal Mathematical School from 1709 to 1755, with John Robertson as assistant towards the end of his life. Other masters included James Dodson and William Wales. The master of the early 1760s, Daniel Harris, wrote with John Bevis the manual "Hints for Running the Line ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Charles II Of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of King of England, England, Scotland and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France. After Execution of Charles I, Charles I's execution at Palace of Whitehall, Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. But England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth, and the country was a de facto republic led by Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles Escape of Charles II, fled to mainland Europe. Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Hodgson (mathematician)
James Hodgson (1672–1755) was an English astronomer, mathematical teacher, lecturer and writer. Life The nephew of Christopher Wren, Hodgson was an assistant to the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, between 1695 and 1702. In 1703 he was elected Fellow, and in 1733 one of the council, of the Royal Society. He was master of mathematics at the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital from 1709 until his death. Hodgson married Flamsteed's niece in 1702, took part in the controversies in which Flamsteed was engaged and helped bring his works to posthumous publication. He promoted Flamsteed's work in his textbook ''A System of the Mathematics'' (1723) and has been credited with improving standards and examination success at the School. Hodgson died on 25 June 1755, leaving a widow and several children. Works When Flamsteed died Hodgson assisted his widow in the publication of her husband's works, and he appears as co-editor of the ''A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mason–Dixon Line
The Mason–Dixon line, also called the Mason and Dixon line or Mason's and Dixon's line, is a demarcation line separating four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (part of Virginia until 1863). It was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as part of the resolution of a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in colonial America. The dispute had its origins almost a century earlier in the somewhat confusing proprietary grants by King Charles I to Lord Baltimore (Maryland) and by King Charles II to William Penn (Pennsylvania and Delaware). The largest, east-west portion of the Mason–Dixon line along the southern Pennsylvania border later became known, informally, as the boundary between the Southern slave states and Northern free states. This usage came to prominence during the debate around the Missouri Compromise of 1820, when drawing boundaries between slave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremiah Dixon
Jeremiah Dixon FRS (27 July 1733 – 22 January 1779) was an English surveyor and astronomer who is best known for his work with Charles Mason, from 1763 to 1767, in determining what was later called the Mason–Dixon line. Early life and education Dixon was born in Cockfield, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in 1733, one of seven children, to George Dixon, a coal mine owner, and Mary Hunter, a native of Newcastle who was said to have been "the cleverest woman" to ever marry into the Dixon family. Dixon became interested in astronomy and mathematics during his education at Barnard Castle. Early in life he made acquaintances with the eminent intellectuals of Southern Durham: mathematician William Emerson, and astronomers John Bird and Thomas Wright. Career It was probably the astronomer John Bird, an active Fellow of the Royal Society, who recommended Dixon as suitable to serve as assistant to Charles Mason in 1761 when the Royal Society sent them to observe the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Mason
Charles Mason (April 1728mdlpp: A NOTE ON CHARLES MASON'S ANCESTRY AND HIS FAMILY, H. W. ROBINSON, Lately Librarian of the Royal Society of London Retrieved 6 July 201525 October 1786) was an English who made significant contributions to 18th-century science and American history, particularly through his survey with of the |
John Bevis
John Bevis (10 November 1695 in Salisbury, Wiltshire – 6 November 1771) was an English doctor, electrical researcher and astronomer. He is best known for discovering the Crab Nebula in 1731. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, being awarded his B.A. in 1715 and his M.A. in 1718. In 1757 Bevis published in London a volume on ''The History and Philosophy of Earthquakes'' in which he collected accounts of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake from diverse authentic sources. His survey, the first of its kind, was subsequently used by John Michell (1761). In 1757 Bevis was asked by the tobacconist Thomas Hughes to discover why no flowers would grow in his garden at Bagnigge House, which stood in the vicinity of 61–63 King's Cross Road, London. He found the water from the well on the site to be full of iron. On this research, a second well was dug, the water from which was found to be a good purgative. This led to the establishment of one of the most popular 18th-century spas, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Wales (astronomer)
William Wales (1734? – 29 December 1798) was a British mathematician and astronomer who sailed on Captain Cook's second voyage of discovery, then became Master of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Early life Wales was born around 1734 to John and Sarah Wales and was baptised in Warmfield (near the West Yorkshire town of Wakefield) that year. As a youth, according to the historian John Cawte Beaglehole, Wales travelled south in the company of a Mr Holroyd, who became a plumber in the service of George III. By the mid-1760s, Wales was contributing to ''The Ladies' Diary''. In 1765 he married Mary Green, sister of the astronomer Charles Green. In 1765, Wales was employed by the Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne as a ''computer'', calculating ephemerides that could be used to establish the longitude of a ship, for Maskelyne's ''Nautical Almanac''. 1769 transit of Venus and wintering at Hudson Bay As part of the plans of the Roya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Dodson (mathematician)
James Dodson FRS (c.1705–1757) was a British mathematician, actuary and innovator in the insurance industry. Life Matthew Maty, in his ''Mémoire sur la vie et sur les écrits de M. A. de Moivre'', wrote that Dodson was a pupil of Abraham de Moivre. He worked as an accountant and teacher. In 1752 George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, a friend of Dodson, became President of the Royal Society, and Dodson was elected a Fellow on 16 January 1755. On 7 August of the same year he was elected master of the Royal Mathematical School, Christ's Hospital, and also of Stone's School there. Dodson died 23 November 1757, being then over fifty-two years of age. He lived at Bell Dock, Wapping. Actuarial legacy Having been refused admission to the Amicable Life Assurance Society, because they took no one over 45, he decided to form a new society on a plan of assurance that would be more "equitable". Dodson built on the statistical mortality tables developed by Edmund Halley in 1693. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Robertson (mathematician)
John Robertson (1712–1776) was an English mathematician, and a Fellow, clerk and librarian of the Royal Society. His book ''The Elements of Navigation'' became a classic textbook. Life Initially apprenticed to a trade, Robertson became a teacher of mathematics. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1741. In 1747 he was appointed master of the Royal Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital, assistant there to James Hodgson. In 1755 Robertson became first master of the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth. Having lost this appointment in 1766 through intrigues of the second master, he returned to London, and was appointed clerk and librarian to the Royal Society on 7 January 1768. This post he held till his death, on 11 December 1776. Writings and scientific work Robertson published his first book ''Completed Treatise on Mensuration'' in 1739 and was subsequently elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1741. In 1747 he published the first edition of ''A Treatise of Such Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphry Ditton
Humphry Ditton (29 May 1675 – 15 October 1715) was an English mathematician. He was the author of several influential works. Life Ditton was born on 29 May 1675 in Salisbury, the only son of Humphry Ditton, gentleman and ardent nonconformist, and Miss Luttrell of Dunster Castle, near Taunton. He studied theology privately, and was for some time also a dissenting minister, at Tonbridge, where he married a Miss Ball.Raymond Flood: "Ditton, Humphry umphrey, ODNBRetrieved 29 May 2021./ref> On his father's death, Ditton devoted himself mainly to the study of mathematics. Through the influence of Isaac Newton he was elected mathematical master in Christ's Hospital. He produced also a theological work, ''A Discourse Concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ'', which sought to take a mathematical, deductive approach to the subject. The first of its four editions appeared in 1712 and it was translated into French and German. He was unable to complete his response to various criticis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the greatest mathematicians and physicists and among the most influential scientists of all time. He was a key figure in the philosophical revolution known as the Enlightenment. His book (''Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy''), first published in 1687, established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing infinitesimal calculus. In the , Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. Newton used his mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion, account for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
