Applications

Applications

Applications of mathematics include both classical areas such as physics, computer science and engineering as well as some more subtly connected subjects such as economics, finance and game theory. In the classical branch lurk the names of many famous mathematicians and inventors such as Archimedes, Huygens and Marolois.

Marolois-title-page

Samuel Marolois, Mathematicvm opvs absolvtissimvm : continens geometriae, fortificationis, architecturæ, & perspectivæ theoreticæ ac practicæ regulas, demonstrationes, & figuras perfectissimas studio atque opera Alberti Girardi (Amsterdam, 1633), title page.

A notable omission from the discussion thus far is Sir Isaac Newton. Worth’s collection of remarkable texts includes both the second and third edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, as well as four other works concerning various topics in natural philosophy (physics) and chronology. So extraordinary was Newton’s contribution to mathematics, both pure and applied, that a dedicated exhibition at the Worth library which explores his life and works is currently available.

Blaise Pascal’s work on pressure, air and weight in particular have been forever embodied in physics by the Système international’s definition of the standard unit of pressure which bears his name: pressure is measured in Pascals (Pa). Worth also collected works by an Englishman named John Wilkins, a religious man who aimed to ‘gain acceptance for the new science, to bring the work of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Gilbert, Mersenne, and others, to the attention of his countrymen’ (Crowther, 1960).

Sources

Crowther J. G., Founders of British science: John Wilkins, Robert Boyle, John Ray, Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Isaac Newton (London, 1960).