Robert Recorde

Infobox Scientist
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name = Robert Recorde


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caption = Robert Recorde (1510–1558)
birth_date = c. 1510
birth_place = Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales
death_date = 1558
death_place = London, England
residence = flag|England
citizenship =
nationality = flag|Wales|name=Welsh
ethnicity =
fields = Mathematician and physician
workplaces = University of Oxford
Royal Mint
alma_mater = University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
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notable_students =
known_for = Inventing the "equals" sign (=)
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religion = Intially Catholic, then Protestant


footnotes =

Robert Recorde (c. 1510 – 1558) was a Welsh physician and mathematician. He introduced the "equals" sign (=) in 1557.

A member of a respectable family of Tenby, Wales, he entered the University of Oxford in about 1525, and was elected a fellow of All Souls College in 1531. Having adopted medicine as a profession, he went to the University of Cambridge to take the degree of M.D. in 1545. He afterwards returned to Oxford, where he publicly taught mathematics, as he had done prior to going to Cambridge. It appears that he afterwards went to London, and acted as physician to King Edward VI and to Queen Mary, to whom some of his books are dedicated. He was also controller of the Royal Mint and served as "Comptroller of Mines and Monies" in Ireland. [Newman, James R. 1956, "The World Of Mathematics"] After being sued for defamation by a political enemy, he was arrested for debt and died in the King's Bench Prison, Southwark, in 1558.

Recorde published several works upon mathematical subjects, chiefly in the form of dialogue between master and scholar, such as the following:
*"The Grounde of Artes, teachings the Worke and Practise, of Arithmeticke, both in whole numbers and fractions" (c. 1540), the first English book on algebra.
*"The Pathway to Knowledge, containing the First Principles of Geometry ... bothe for the use of Instrumentes Geometricall and Astronomicall, and also for Projection of Plattes" (London, 1551)
*"The Castle of Knowledge, containing the Explication of the Sphere both Celestiall and Materiall, etc." (London, 1556)
*"The Whetstone of Witte, which is the second part of Arithmetike, containing the Extraction of Rootes, the Cossike Practice, with the Rules of Equation, and the Woorkes of Surde Numbers" (London, 1557). This was the book in which the equals sign was introduced. With the publication of this book Recorde is credited with introducing algebra into England. [Jourdain, Philip E. B. 1913, "The Nature Of Mathematics"]
*a medical work, "The Urinal of Physic" (1548), frequently reprinted.Sherburne states that Recorde also published "Cosmographiae isagoge", and that he wrote a book "De Arte faciendi Horologium" and another "De Usu Globorum et de Statu temporum". Recorde's chief contributions to the progress of algebra were in the way of systematizing its notation.

ee also

*Equality (mathematics)
*Zenzizenzizenzic- a word to describe a number to the eighth power coined by Robert Recorde.
*Welsh mathematicians
*St. Mary's Church, Tenby

Notes

References

*1911|article=Robert Recorde|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Robert_Recorde
*Newman, James R. (1956), "The World Of Mathematics" Vol. 1 "Commentary On Robert Recorde"
*Jourdain, Philip E.B. (1913), "The Nature Of Mathematics"

External links

* [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Recorde.html St. Andrew's University Maths History biography]
* [http://www.famouswelsh.com/cgibin/getmoreinf.cgi?pers_id=141 Robert Recorde] and other Welsh Mathematicians
* [http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/robertrecorde 100 Welsh Heroes - Robert Recorde]
* [http://members.aol.com/jeff570/relation.html Earliest Uses of Symbols of Relation]
* [http://141.14.236.86/cgi-bin/archim/dict/hw?lemma=RECORDE&step=entry&id=d006 RECORDE (Robert)] at Charles Hutton's "A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary"
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A7269690 Robert Recorde's life and works on h2g2]