The Early Mathematical Sciences in North and South America |
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Academy of Arts achromatic Adrain almanac altitude Alzate American Academy American Philosophical Society Andrew Ellicott Antonio Arts and Sciences astrolabe astronomical astronomical observations Bartolache Benjamin Franklin Bogotá Boston Bouguer boundary Brattle Caldas Chappe cifrão clock Colombia Columbus comet Condamine David Rittenhouse Delaware determination Dollond Dominica earliest early earth eighteenth century electrical England Europe feet focal length French gnomon Harvard College Humboldt instruments Jesuit John Winthrop José José Celestino Mutis later latitude longitude magic squares magnetic Mansfield Manuel Orozco maps Mason and Dixon mathematician mathematics Maya measured Memoirs meridian line miles moon Mutis navigation Newton Norriton numbers observatory observe the transit orrery Paris pendulum Pennsylvania Philadelphia Philosophical Transactions professor published quadrant quipu radius reflecting telescope reflector refraction River Robert Adrain Royal Society scientific Sigüenza Spain Spanish stars survey surveyors Tangent Line theory Thomas transit of Venus Velazquez Voyages York
Popular passages
Page 88 - THE ATLANTIC NEPTUNE, published for the use of the Royal navy of Great Britain.
Page 18 - I could fill the cells of any magic square, of reasonable size, with a series of numbers as fast as I could write them, disposed in such a manner, as that the sums of every row, horizontal, perpendicular, or diagonal, should be equal; but not being satisfied with these, which I looked on as common and easy things, I had imposed on myself more difficult tasks, and succeeded in making other magic squares, with...
Page 119 - See the sage Rittenhouse, with ardent eye, Lift the long tube and pierce the starry sky ; Clear in his view the circling systems roll, And broader splendors gild the central pole.
Page 139 - I must own I am much in the Dark about Light. I am not satisfy'd with the doctrine that supposes particles of matter call'd light, continually driven off from the sun's surface, with a swiftness so prodigious! Must not the smallest particle conceivable have, with such a motion, a force exceeding that of a 24 pounder, discharg'd from a cannon?
Page 139 - Sense the Eye, as those of Air do the grosser Organs of the Ear? We do not, in the Case of Sound, imagine that any sonorous Particles are thrown off from a Bell, for Instance, and fly in...
Page 112 - Sigiienza and his controversy on comets, because this debate is the earliest instance of a clash of intellects in public print on a scientific question that occurred in America. This controversy, conducted in a region far remote from the recognized centers of intellectual life, was very creditable and indicated that even distant America affords examples where in the seventeenth century the scientific method was arrayed in battle against the antiquated processes of theology and superstition. 3. The...
Page 142 - Nothing in the success of any of these experiments appeared to be a sufficient compensation for the expense, and the extreme inconvenience of the steam-engine in the vessel. There are indeed general objections to the use of the steamengine for impelling boats, from which no particular mode of application can be free.
Page 139 - May not all the phenomena of light be more conveniently solved, by supposing universal space filled with a subtile elastic fluid, which, when at rest, is not visible, but whose vibrations affect that fine sense in the eye, as those of air do the grosser organs of the ear?
Page 142 - During the general lassitude of mechanical exertion which succeeded the American Revolution, the utility of steam-engines appears to have been forgotten ; but the subject afterward started into very general notice in a form in which it could not possibly be attended with success. A sort of mania began to prevail, which, indeed, has not yet entirely subsided, for impelling boats by steam-engines.