The history of mathematical tables : from Sumer to spreadsheets / edited by M. Campbell-Kelly ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Campbell-Kelly, Martin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Tables--History.

Mathematics.

Mathematics--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (372 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book contains a series of articles summarizing the technical, institutional and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late 20th century when the electronic spreadsheet changed the way information is processed.

Contents:

Tables and tabular formatting in Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria, 2500 BCE-50 CE

The making of logarithm tables

History of actuarial tables

The computation factory : de Prony's project for making tables in the 1790s

Difference engines : from Muller to Comrie

The 'unerring certainty of mechanical agency' : machines and table making in the nineteenth century

Table making in astronomy

The General Register Office and the tabulation of data, 1837-1939

Table making by committee : British table makers, 1871-1965

Table making for the relief of labour

The making of astronomical tables in HM Nautical Almanac Office

The rise and rise of the spreadsheet.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-154521-X

9786611924997

1-281-92499-7

OCLC:

185035611