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Rigorous thinking and the use of instruments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Tony Gardiner
Tony Gardiner*
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT
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Extract

The title is a section heading from the lovely biography [1] by Florian Cajori of the English mathematician William Oughtred (15647-1660). Though Cajori was writing history he chose his subject and style to give modern readers (of 1916), and especially teachers of mathematics, something to think about.

Oughtred was a fine amateur mathematician and a thoughtful teacher. John Aubrey in his brief lives (quoted in [1p12]) wrote:

He was a little man, had black haire, and black eies (with a great deal of spirit). His head was always working. He would drawe lines and diagrams on the dust… did use to lye a bed till eleaven or twelve a clock… Studyed late at night; went not to bed till 11 a clock;… and on top of his bed-staffe, he had his ink-horne fix't. He slept but little. Sometimes he went not to bed in two or three nights.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 76 , Issue 475 , March 1992 , pp. 179 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1992

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References

[1] Cajori, F., William Oughtred: a great seventeenth century teacher of mathematics, Open Court, Chicago (1916).Google Scholar