Author: WARDHAUGH, BENJAMIN (1979-)
Title: Poor Robin's prophecies : a curious almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian Britain / Benjamin Wardhaugh
Description: Oxford : Oxford University Press 2012. First Edition. An exceptional copy; fine in an equally fine dust wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight. bright. clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new.; 8vo 8' - 9' tall; 248 pages; Contents; 1. 'Doctor Faustus's Day': Making fun Almanac day - high-class astrology - Poor Robin and his authors - mathematics and its mockers ; 2. 'The dismal and long expected morning': Getting it wrong The eclipse that never was - the South Sea Bubble - mathematics and its reputation - seamen's back-dated wages ; 3. 'Fitted to the meanest capacity': Learning it Isaac Hatch's exercises - maths at school - a gift for a maid - Ann Mohun's book ; 4. 'Beer. wine and malt': Using it Mathematics in your day - John Dougharty's barrel - maths and its instruments - Richard Shittler and his book ; 5. 'Beautifying the mind': Geometry and its effects Thomas Porcher's beautiful pages - How Descartes can change your life - geometry unbound - making yourself mad ; 6. 'A geometrical creation': Ordering the world The gentlemen of Spaulding - Desaguliers and his lectures - reforming the calendar - sawing up an organ ; 7. 'The number of sheep in Ireland': Getting it right Political arithmetic - facts. facts. facts - stacking the guineas - crossing the globe ; 8. 'The terrible Pons asinorum': Playing with it Comedy in the classroom - It might be you - The Ladies' Diary - the obscenometer and the death of Poor Robin. Summary; Tells the story of how ordinary people in eighteenth-century Britain learned and applied popular practical mathematics to weighing and measuring. business. agriculture. surveying. and navigation. The annual almanac 'Poor Robin'--first published in 1663 and outliving its original creator to last until 1828--supplied the data everyone needed about the coming year's tides. equinoxes. and astronomical events. Poor Robin of Saffron Walden. a fantastical figure in British popular culture from the Restoration to the end of the Georgian period. also provided arithmetical tips and tricks as well as subversive spoof astrology and political satire. Author. astrologer. journalist. satirist. and 'well-willer to the mathematics'. Poor Robin of Saffron Walden was a fantastic. yet invented. figure of British popular culture from the Restoration to the end of the Georgian period. Poor Robin's Almanac first appeared in 1662. developing an enthusiastic following and long outliving its original creator to last until 1828. Benjamin Wardhaugh tells the great story of Georgian popular mathematics - through Poor Robin's remarkable life. from his humble beginnings as an almanac-writer through to best-selling stardom. controversy. and decline. Using the character. wit. and columns of Poor Robin. Wardhaugh explores the mathematics of ordinary people. from learning sums to using mathematics in weighing and measuring. in business. agriculture. map-making. and navigation. This is a history of mathematics that is rarely thought about - creative. popular. and led by practical and social needs. It is centered on the ordinary people that used it. Their names remain little-known; their solutions have vanished along with the situations that required them; but their energy and ideas - as captured by Poor Robin - create a wonderfully rich picture of what mathematics can be. and has been. Subjects; Poor Robin. Mathematics - England - History - 18th century. Almanacs. English - 18th century. Mathematics - Study and teaching - England - History - 18th century. Mathematics - England - Popular works - History - 18th century.Weight in Kg appr.:

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