scholarly journals All Plain Sailing

1956 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. G. R. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Mean Value ◽  
Mathematical School ◽  
Initial Decision ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Cylindrical Projection ◽  
Extended Plane ◽  
History Of ◽  
Exact Shape ◽  
John Wilson

‘The Earth is an ellipsoid’, says the Admiralty Navigation Manual firmly, although in a later volume the expression is softened to ‘approximately ellipsoidal’, For in fact, as was implied by Captain Topley, the exact shape of the Earth is not yet known. Nevertheless, for nautical purposes it appears sound teaching practice to consider it a perfect sphere and then explain the departures of the nautical mile or minute of arc from its mean value. Nor need one quarrel with the Manual's statement that ‘to regard certain small triangles as plane is not to disregard the initial decision to regard the Earth as a sphere’. But the writer next indulges in an historical aside which cannot be allowed to pass. ‘This assumption (he says) gives rise to the expression plane sailing, which is popularly referred to as if plane were spelt plain and the sailing were free from difficulty’. But this is to put the cart before the horse. ‘Plain sailing’ was the original term, and it was only sophisticated into ‘plane sailing’ during the eighteenth century by teachers of navigation among whom John Robertson was the chief. Robertson was master at the Mathematical School of Christ's Hospital towards the middle of the century, and afterwards taught at the Portsmouth Naval College, finally becoming Librarian to the Royal Society. His Elements of Navigation was considered authoritative and ran into many editions, a later master at the Hospital, James Wilson, prefixing to it a Dissertation on the history of navigation which was also accepted as definitive. It is in this volume that we read: ‘Plane sailing is the art of navigating a ship upon principles deduced from the notion of the Earth's being an extended Plane. On this supposition the meridians are esteemed as parallel right lines…’, and the author goes on to what he terms the Plane Chart, with its equally-spaced meridians. There is little doubt that his passage is the source of the theory taught to modern sailors that ‘Plain Chart’ is a corruption of ‘Plane Chart’, while the latter was drawn by people who believed the Earth was flat. Actually we have only to go back a generation from Robertson to find an almost identical description of the chart—actually an equal-spaced conventional cylindrical projection of the sphere—but with the addition of the words ‘The rectangle formed by these meridians and parallels they (i.e. mariners) call the Plain Chart’. This was said in 1714 by John Wilson, a teacher in Edinburgh.

scholarly journals KONTRIBUSI TEORI IBN AL-SHĀṬIR DALAM PERKEMBANGAN TRADISI ILMIAH ASTRONOMI ISLAM

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Sakirman ◽  
Muslich Shabir
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Western World ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
Mathematical School ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Concentric Spheres ◽  
History Of ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
The Universe

<p>This paper traces the roots of the scientific tradition of astronomy in a classical century that marked the rise of Islamic civilization in the midst of Western darkness in a philosophical-historical perspective. The study focussed on translation activities in the eighth century to the peak of astronomical scientific activity that is divided into two major schools; the astronomical-mathematical school of the East and the astronomical-philosophical schools of the Western world to the Islamic Caliphate. The Greek astronomical tradition is basically dominated by Aristotelian thought that states that the universe is organized into a set of concentric spheres each carrying a star and spinning around the earth. The Earth is still and becomes the center of the universe. Ptolemy adopted the two basic principles of Aristotle, ie the earth dwells at the center of the universe and the motion of heavenly bodies must be represented by a set of perfectly uniform circular motions. From the results of historical studies on the development of Muslim astronomy in the classical century can be seen that the peak of scientific progress in the Western world can not be separated from the point of zenit for the advancement of science developed by Muslim scientists. Efforts made by Western scientists in enriching the astronomical treasury is inseparable from the step of translation through intensive scientific studies that gave birth to a variety of monumental works in the history of astronomy.</p><p>Tulisan ini melacak akar tradisi ilmiah astronomi pada abad klasik yang menandai majunya peradaban Islam di tengah-tengah kegelapan Barat dalam perspektif historis-filosofis. Kajian difokuskan pada aktivitas penerjemahan pada abad kedelapan hingga puncak kegiatan ilmiah astronomis yang terbagi dalam dua mazhab besar; mazhab astronomis-matematis di Timur dan mazhab astronomis-filosofis di dunia Barat pada kekhalifahan Islam. Tradisi astronomi Yunani pada dasarnya didominasi pemikiran Aristotelian yang menyatakan bahwa alam semesta diatur menjadi satu set bola konsentris masing-masing membawa bintang dan berputar di sekitar bumi. Bumi berposisi diam dan menjadi pusat alam semesta. Ptolemeus mengadopsi kedua prinsip dasar Aristoteles tersebut, yaitu bumi diam di pusat alam semesta dan gerak benda-benda langit harus diwakili oleh satu set gerakan melingkar sempurna yang seragam. Dari hasil kajian historis atas perkembangan astronomi muslim pada abad klasik dapat diketahui bahwa puncak kemajuan ilmu pengetahuan di dunia Barat tidak lepas dari titik zenit atas kemajuan ilmu pengetahuan yang dikembangkan oleh ilmuwan Muslim. Upaya yang dilakukan ilmuwan Barat dalam memperkaya khazanah astronomi tidak terlepas dari langkah penerjemahan melalui pengkajian ilmiah yang intensif sehingga melahirkan berbagai karya-karya monumental dalam sejarah astronomi.</p>

Hereditary Heparin Cofactor II Deficiency and the Risk of Development of Thrombosis

1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (02) ◽  
pp. 196-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
R M Bertina ◽  
I K van der Linden ◽  
L Engesser ◽  
H P Muller ◽  
E J P Brommer
Keyword(s):  
Liver Disease ◽  
Venous Thrombosis ◽  
Healthy Volunteers ◽  
Mean Value ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Normal Range ◽  
Heparin Cofactor Ii ◽  
History Of ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Hereditary Nature

SummaryHeparin cofactor II (HC II) levels were measured by electroimmunoassay in healthy volunteers, and patients with liver disease, DIC, proteinuria or a history of venous thrombosis. Analysis of the data in 107 healthy volunteers revealed that plasma HC II increases with age (at least between 20 and 50 years). HC II was found to be decreased in most patients with liver disease (mean value: 43%) and only in some patients with DIC. Elevated levels were found in patients with proteinuria (mean value 145%). In 277 patients with a history of unexplained venous thrombosis three patients were identified with a HC II below the lower limit of the normal range (60%). Family studies demonstrated hereditary HC II deficiency in two cases. Among the 9 heterozygotes for HC II deficiency only one patient had a well documented history of unexplained thrombosis. Therefore the question was raised whether heterozygotes for HC II deficiency can also be found among healthy volunteers. When defining a group of individuals suspected of HC II deficiency as those who have a 90% probability that their plasma HC II is below the 95% tolerance limits of the normal distribution in the relevant age group, 2 suspected HC II deficiencies were identified among the healthy volunteers. In one case the hereditary nature of the defect could be established.It is concluded that hereditary HC II deficiency is as prevalent among healthy volunteers as in patients with thrombotic disease. Further it is unlikely that heterozygosity for HC II deficiency in itself is a risk factor for the development of venous thrombosis.

George Hoggart Toulmin: politics and geology

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-481
Author(s):  
ROY PORTER
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Christian View ◽  
The Social ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
History Of

The physician George Hoggart Toulmin (1754–1817) propounded his theory of the Earth in a number of works beginning with The antiquity and duration of the world (1780) and ending with his The eternity of the universe (1789). It bore many resemblances to James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth" (1788) in stressing the uniformity of Nature, the gradual destruction and recreation of the continents and the unfathomable age of the Earth. In Toulmin's view, the progress of the proper theory of the Earth and of political advancement were inseparable from each other. For he analysed the commonly accepted geological ideas of his day (which postulated that the Earth had been created at no great distance of time by God; that God had intervened in Earth history on occasions like the Deluge to punish man; and that all Nature had been fabricated by God to serve man) and argued they were symptomatic of a society trapped in ignorance and superstition, and held down by priestcraft and political tyranny. In this respect he shared the outlook of the more radical figures of the French Enlightenment such as Helvétius and the Baron d'Holbach. He believed that the advance of freedom and knowledge would bring about improved understanding of the history and nature of the Earth, as a consequence of which Man would better understand the terms of his own existence, and learn to live in peace, harmony and civilization. Yet Toulmin's hopes were tempered by his naturalistic view of the history of the Earth and of Man. For Time destroyed everything — continents and civilizations. The fundamental law of things was cyclicality not progress. This latent political conservatism and pessimism became explicit in Toulmin's volume of verse, Illustration of affection, published posthumously in 1819. In those poems he signalled his disapproval of the French Revolution and of Napoleonic imperialism. He now argued that all was for the best in the social order, and he abandoned his own earlier atheistic religious radicalism, now subscribing to a more Christian view of God. Toulmin's earlier geological views had run into considerable opposition from orthodox religious elements. They were largely ignored by the geological community in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain, but were revived and reprinted by lower class radicals such as Richard Carlile. This paper is to be published in the American journal, The Journal for the History of Ideas in 1978 (in press).

‘The malignity of Reviewers’: Coleridge, Wilson, and Blackwood's

Romanticism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-242
Author(s):  
Charles Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
History Of ◽  
John Wilson

The first number of the refashioned Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine opens with a review of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Biographia Literaria which is still regarded as one of the most virulent ‘attacks’ in the history of periodical reviewing. What could have motivated John Wilson to disparage Coleridge so personally and at such length? One factor may have been the treatment of Francis Jeffrey in the Biographia. Jeffrey's presence in both the Biographia and Wilson's review reveals a complicated debate regarding reviewing practices in the 1810s at the same time as it illuminates the boisterous, unpredictable tone of the new magazine.

Computers in Geology - 25 Years of Progress

1994 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Modeling ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
International Association ◽  
Mathematical Geology ◽  
25Th Anniversary ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mapping Techniques

This volume vividly demonstrates the importance and increasing breadth of quantitative methods in the earth sciences. With contributions from an international cast of leading practitioners, chapters cover a wide range of state-of-the-art methods and applications, including computer modeling and mapping techniques. Many chapters also contain reviews and extensive bibliographies which serve to make this an invaluable introduction to the entire field. In addition to its detailed presentations, the book includes chapters on the history of geomathematics and on R.G.V. Eigen, the "father" of mathematical geology. Written to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the International Association for Mathematical Geology, the book will be sought after by both practitioners and researchers in all branches of geology.

Epilogue: On the Current and Future State of Historical Writing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Megill
Keyword(s):  
Historical Writing ◽  
Conceptual Difficulty ◽  
Universal History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Initial Decision ◽  
Future State ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of

This epilogue argues that historians ought to be able to produce a universal history, one that would ‘cover’ the past of humankind ‘as a whole’. However, aside from the always increasing difficulty of mastering the factual material that such an undertaking requires, there exists another difficulty: the coherence of universal history always presupposes an initial decision not to write about the human past in all its multiplicity, but to focus on one aspect of that past. Nevertheless, the lure of universal history will persist, even in the face of its practical and conceptual difficulty. Certainly, it is possible to imagine a future ideological convergence among humans that would enable them to accept, as authoritative, one history of humankind.

The Thermal History of the Earth

Nature ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 177 (4500) ◽  
pp. 155-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. JACOBS ◽  
D. W. ALLAN
Keyword(s):  
Thermal History ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of
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