03009nam 22004335a 450 991015361510332120091109150325.03-03719-559-210.4171/059(CKB)3710000000962490(CH-001817-3)94-091109(PPN)17815556X(EXLCZ)99371000000096249020091109j20081201 fy 0engurnn|mmmmamaatxtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierThomas Harriot's Doctrine of Triangular Numbers: the 'Magisteria Magna'[electronic resource] /Janet Beery, Jacqueline StedallZuerich, Switzerland European Mathematical Society Publishing House20081 online resource (144 pages)Heritage of European Mathematics (HEM) ;2523-5214Thomas 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 Harriot's method was not superseded until Newton, apparently independently, made a similar discovery in the 1660s. The ideas in the 'Magisteria' were spread primarily through personal communication and unpublished manuscripts, and so, quite apart from their intrinsic mathematical interest, their survival in England during the seventeenth century provides an important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.Thomas Harriot's Doctrine of Triangular NumbersThomas Harriot's Doctrine of Triangular NumbersThomas Harriot’s Doctrine of Triangular NumbersHistory of mathematicsbicsscHistory and biographymscHistory of mathematicsHistory and biography01-xxmscBeery Janet1070775Stedall Jacquelinech0018173BOOK9910153615103321Thomas Harriot's Doctrine of Triangular Numbers: the 'Magisteria Magna2565016UNINA