Napier's Bones

Napier's Bones
Author: Derryl Murphy
Publisher: Chizine Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Magic
ISBN: 9781926851099

In a world where numbers are magic, Dom searches for an item of immense power while on the run from a powerful enemy.

Rabdology

Rabdology
Author: John Napier
Publisher:
Total Pages: 184
Release: 1990
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

This first English translation of Napier's Rabdologia provides a clear and readable introduction to a group of physical calculating devices, which, long overshadowed by Napier's logarithms, have their own intrinsic interest and charm. "The tasks which fill'd beginners with dismayThis little book has banish'd clear away." John Napier had already discovered and published an epochmaking treatise on logarithms when in 1617 he turned to "rabdology" or rod-reckoning as yet another means by which to confront the problem of simplifying the huge calculations involved in multiplication, division, and the extraction of roots. This first English translation of Napier's Rabdologia provides a clear and readable introduction to a group of physical calculating devices, which, long overshadowed by Napier's logarithms, have their own intrinsic interest and charm. Book I describes the first device, a set of rods known as "Napier's Bones," which were inscribed with numbers forming multiplication tables and used in conjunction with pencil and paper. Book 11 presents a series of simple calculations that readers can solve by using the rods, and a series of tables of ratios useful for division. Napier then describes the second mechanical device for calculation, a forerunner of the modern calculator that he named promptuary or "place where things are stored ready for use." The third device, similar to a chessboard, allowed calculations to be performed by moving counters around the squares. Observing that the numbers had to be represented in what would now be called binary form, Napier provides instructions for changing from ordinary to binary numbers and back again, a method that worked equally well for multiplication and division and that had a particularly elegant symmetry when applied to the extraction of square roots.

Napier's Bones

Napier's Bones
Author: Derryl Murphy
Publisher: ChiZine
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1926851935

A man who controls the magic of numbers is on the run in a sci-fi novel that “heads off into uncharted territory . . . stretching the bounds of what is possible” (Quill & Quire). Dom is a numerate, someone able to see and control the magical power of numbers. Everything from license plates and credit cards to baseball statistics feed the considerable abilities of Dom and his kind. Grifters and gamblers, numerates search for—and fight over—the world’s most mathematically powerful artifacts. While seeking a mathematical item of immense power that has only been whispered about, everything goes south for Dom. He finds himself on the run across three countries on two continents, with two unlikely companions in tow and a numerate of unfathomable strength hot on his tail. Along the way he faces giant creatures of stone and earth, statues that come alive, numerical wonders cast over hundreds of years, and the very real possibility that he won’t make it out alive. And one of his companions holds a secret so powerful it could change the lives of numerates forever.

John Napier

John Napier
Author:
Publisher: CUP Archive
Total Pages: 60
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

Presents a biographical sketch of Scottish mathematician John Napier (1550-1617), compiled as part of the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland. Highlights Naimark's work on logarithms.

John Napier

John Napier
Author: Julian Havil
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2014-10-05
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1400852188

The most comprehensive account of the mathematician's life and work John Napier (1550–1617) is celebrated today as the man who invented logarithms—an enormous intellectual achievement that would soon lead to the development of their mechanical equivalent in the slide rule: the two would serve humanity as the principal means of calculation until the mid-1970s. Yet, despite Napier's pioneering efforts, his life and work have not attracted detailed modern scrutiny. John Napier is the first contemporary biography to take an in-depth look at the multiple facets of Napier’s story: his privileged position as the eighth Laird of Merchiston and the son of influential Scottish landowners; his reputation as a magician who dabbled in alchemy; his interest in agriculture; his involvement with a notorious outlaw; his staunch anti-Catholic beliefs; his interactions with such peers as Henry Briggs, Johannes Kepler, and Tycho Brahe; and, most notably, his estimable mathematical legacy. Julian Havil explores Napier’s original development of logarithms, the motivations for his approach, and the reasons behind certain adjustments to them. Napier’s inventive mathematical ideas also include formulas for solving spherical triangles, "Napier’s Bones" (a more basic but extremely popular alternative device for calculation), and the use of decimal notation for fractions and binary arithmetic. Havil also considers Napier’s study of the Book of Revelation, which led to his prediction of the Apocalypse in his first book, A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John—the work for which Napier believed he would be most remembered. John Napier assesses one man’s life and the lasting influence of his advancements on the mathematical sciences and beyond.

The Life and Works of John Napier

The Life and Works of John Napier
Author: Brian Rice
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 1009
Release: 2017-03-09
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 3319532820

For the first time, all five of John Napier’s works have been brought together in English in a single volume, making them more accessible than ever before. His four mathematical works were originally published in Latin: two in his lifetime (1550–1617), one shortly after he died, and one over 200 years later. The authors have prepared three introductory chapters, one covering Napier himself, one his mathematical works, and one his religious work. The former has been prepared by one of Napier’s descendants and contains many new findings about Napier’s life to provide the most complete biography of this enigmatic character, whose reputation has previously been overshadowed by rumour and speculation. The latter has been written by an academic who was awarded a PhD for his thesis on Napier at the University of Edinburgh, and it provides the most lucid and coherent coverage available of this abstruse and little understood work. The chapter on Napier’s mathematical texts has been authored by an experienced and respected academic, whose recent works have specialised in the history of mathematics and whose Journey through Mathematics was selected in March of 2012 as an Outstanding Title in Mathematics by Choice magazine, a publication of the American Library Association. All three authors have revisited the primary sources extensively and deliver new insights about Napier and his works, whilst revising the many myths and assumptions that surround his life and character.

The Lantern House

The Lantern House
Author: Erin Napier
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2022-05-24
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0316463833

From the nationally beloved co-host of the #1 hit show Home Town comes the quintessential celebration of home. Imagine a house's early days as a home: A young family builds a picket fence and plants flowers in its yard, children climb the magnolia tree and play the piano in the living room, and there is music inside the house for many happy years. But what will happen when its windows grow dark, its paint starts to crumble, and its boards creak in the winter wind? The house dreams of a family who will love it again...and one day, a new story will emerge from within its walls. In this modern classic, Erin Napier’s lyrical prose and Adam Trest’s warm and comforting paintings deeply evoke the soul of a house cherishing the seasons of life and discovering the joy of rebirth.

John Napier and the Invention of Logarithms, 1614

John Napier and the Invention of Logarithms, 1614
Author: E. W. Hobson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2012-03-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107624509

Originally published in 1914, this volume was created to mark the tercentenary of John Napier's Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio. Written by the prominent English mathematician Ernest William Hobson, the text provides a highly readable introduction to the theory of logarithms and puts their discovery within a historical context. Illustrations are also included. This is a concise and accessible book that will be of value to anyone with an interest in logarithms and the history of mathematics.

Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing

Milestones in Analog and Digital Computing
Author: Herbert Bruderer
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 2072
Release: 2021-01-04
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3030409740

This Third Edition is the first English-language edition of the award-winning Meilensteine der Rechentechnik; illustrated in full color throughout in two volumes. The Third Edition is devoted to both analog and digital computing devices, as well as the world's most magnificient historical automatons and select scientific instruments (employed in astronomy, surveying, time measurement, etc.). It also features detailed instructions for analog and digital mechanical calculating machines and instruments, and is the only such historical book with comprehensive technical glossaries of terms not found in print or in online dictionaries. The book also includes a very extensive bibliography based on the literature of numerous countries around the world. Meticulously researched, the author conducted a worldwide survey of science, technology and art museums with their main holdings of analog and digital calculating and computing machines and devices, historical automatons and selected scientific instruments in order to describe a broad range of masterful technical achievements. Also covering the history of mathematics and computer science, this work documents the cultural heritage of technology as well.