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001			94-091109
003			CH-001817-3
005			20170613140746.0
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008			091109e20081201sz fot ||| 0|eng d
020			_a9783037195598
024	7	0	_a10.4171/059 _2doi
040			_ach0018173
072		7	_aPBX _2bicssc
084			_a01-xx _2msc
100	1		_aBeery, Janet, _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aThomas Harriot’s Doctrine of Triangular Numbers: the ‘Magisteria Magna’ _h[electronic resource] / _cJanet Beery, Jacqueline Stedall
260	3		_aZuerich, Switzerland : _bEuropean Mathematical Society Publishing House, _c2008
264		1	_aZuerich, Switzerland : _bEuropean Mathematical Society Publishing House, _c2008
300			_a1 online resource (144 pages)
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_acomputer _bc _2rdamedia
338			_aonline resource _bcr _2rdacarrier
347			_atext file _bPDF _2rda
490	0		_aHeritage of European Mathematics (HEM)
506	1		_aRestricted to subscribers: _uhttp://www.ems-ph.org/ebooks.php
520			_aThomas Harriot (c. 1560–1621) was a mathematician and astronomer, known not only for his work in algebra and geometry, but also for his wide-ranging interests in ballistics, navigation, and optics (he discovered the sine law of refraction now known as Snell’s law). By about 1614, Harriot had developed finite difference interpolation methods for navigational tables. In 1618 (or slightly later) he composed a treatise entitled ‘De numeris triangularibus et inde de progressionibus arithmeticis, Magisteria magna’, in which he derived symbolic interpolation formulae and showed how to use them. This treatise was never published and is here reproduced for the first time. Commentary has been added to help the reader to follow Harriot’s beautiful but almost completely nonverbal presentation. The introductory essay preceding the treatise gives an overview of the contents of the ‘Magisteria’ and describes its influence on Harriot’s contemporaries and successors over the next sixty years. Harriot’s method was not superseded until Newton, apparently independently, made a similar discovery in the 1660s. The ideas in the ‘Magisteria’ were spread primarily through personal communication and unpublished manuscripts, and so, quite apart from their intrinsic mathematical interest, their survival in England during the seventeenth century provides an important case study in the dissemination of mathematics through informal networks of friends and acquaintances.
650	0	7	_aHistory of mathematics _2bicssc
650	0	7	_aHistory and biography _2msc
700	1		_aBeery, Janet, _eauthor.
700	1		_aStedall, Jacqueline, _eauthor.
856	4	0	_uhttps://doi.org/10.4171/059
856	4	2	_3cover image _uhttp://www.ems-ph.org/img/books/harriot_mini.jpg
942			_2EBK13773 _cEBK
999			_c50397 _d50397