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Leacock, Stephen

How can you shorten the subject? That stern struggle with the multiplication table, for many people not yet ended in victory, how can you make it less? Square root, as obdurate as a hardwood stump in a pasture; nothing but years of effort can extract it. You can't hurry the process. Or pass from arithmetic to algebra; you can't shoulder your way past quadratic equations or ripple through the binomial theorem. Instead, the other way; your feet are impeded in the tangled growth, your pace slackens, you sink and fall somewhere near the binomial theorem with the calculus in sight on the horizon. So died, for each of us, still bravely fighting, our mathematical training; except for a set of people called "mathematicians" -- born so, like crooks.

In H. Eves, Return to Mathematical Circles, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1988.

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Loci: Convergence

Eratosthenes and the Mystery of the Stades

by Newlyn Walkup

References

  1. Dicks, D. R. “Eratosthenes.” Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York:  Charles  Scribner’s Sons, 1971.
  2. Dicks, D. R. The Geographical Fragments of Hipparchus. New York:  The Athlone Press at the University of London, 1960.
  3. Dunham, William. Journey Through Genius. New York:  Penguin Books, 1990.
  4. Dutka, Jaques. “Eratosthenes’ Measurement of the Earth Reconsidered.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 46 (1993):  55-64.
  5. Fischer, Irene. “Another Look at Eratosthenes’ and Posidonius’ Determinations of the Earth’s Circumference.” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 16 (1975):  152-167.
  6. Goldstein, Bernard R. “Eratosthenes on the “Measurement” of the Earth.” Historia Mathematica 11 (1984):  411-416.
  7. Gulbekian, Edward. “The Origin and Value of the Stadion Unit used by Eratosthenes in the Third Century B.C.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 37 (1987):  359-363.
  8. Heath, Sir Thomas L. Aristarchus of Samos. New York:  The Clarendon Press at Oxford University, 1913.
  9. Heath, Sir Thomas L. Euclid’s Elements. Vol 1. New York:  Dover Publications, 1956.
  10. Heath, Sir Thomas L. Euclid’s Elements. Vol 2. New York:  Dover Publications, 1956.
  11. Heath, Sir Thomas L. Greek Astronomy. New York:  AMS Press, 1969.
  12. Heath, Sir Thomas L. Greek Mathematics. Vol 2. New York:  The Clarendon Press at Oxford University, 1921.
  13. Heath, Sir Thomas L., ed. The Method of Archimedes. Cambridge:  University Press at Cambridge, 1912.
  14. Jeananda, Col. Enchanted Learning. 2005. 3 Mar. 2005 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/africa/egypt/outlinemap/  
  15. Katz, Victor J. A History of Mathematics. 2nd ed. New York:  Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
  16. Lahanas, Michael. “home page.” Aug. 2005.  University of Heidelberg and Frankfurt.  1 Mar. 2005 http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Measurements.htm 
  17. “Meridian.” Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary. 1995.
  18. Rawlins, Dennis. “The Eratosthenes-Strabo Nile Map.  Is It the Earliest Surviving Instance of Spherical Cartography?  Did It Supply the 5000 Stades Arc for Eratosthenes’ Experiment?” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 26 (1982):  211-219.
  19. Siebold. J. Cartographic Images. 12 Feb. 1998. Henry Davis Consulting Inc. 3 Mar. 2005 http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/AncientWebPages/112.html.
  20. Smith, James R. From Plane to Spheroid. Rancho Cordova, CA:  Landmark Enterprises, 1986.
  21. Weisstein, Eric W. Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy. 22 Feb. 2005.
    http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/Earth.html.

 
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