John Couch Adams: Mathematical Astronomer, College Friend Of
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Maxwell and the Rings of Saturn
newsletter OF THE James Clerk Maxwell Foundation Issue No.5 Spring 2 015 Maxwell a nd t he Rings of Saturn by Professor Andrew Whitaker, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Queen’s University, Belfast Le Verrier, or to be worthy of the credit bestowed on him by Britain and, in particular, Cambridge. The funds for the Adams Prize were A view of the rings of Saturn (from Gribbin, John and provided by alumni of Adams’ Cambridge Goodwin, Simon (1998). Empire of the Sun: Planets college, St. John’s, and the prize was in and Moons of the Solar System. Constable, London.) the gift of the University. Airy and Challis were heavily involved in choosing topics Maxwell considered the rings of Saturn Against this background, why was in the first few years of the prize, and in to be ‘ the most remarkable bodies in the Maxwell prepared to put in so much work Maxwell’s year William Thomson was heavens ’, second only, in his opinion, to over several years on the rings of Saturn? also an examiner. Thomson, later Lord the spiral nebulae. Yet it seems extremely Admittedly the prize was substantial – Kelvin, had, of course, been Professor of unlikely that he would have devoted £130, or perhaps £13,000 in today’s terms, Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University a substantial amount of time and and this was rather more than a third of since 1846, but retained very strong links effort to determining their structure his full year’s salary at Aberdeen. But it is with Cambridge throughout his career. mathematically had the topic not been more likely that the reasons for taking Thus the institution of the Adams Prize chosen in 1855 as the subject of the on the challenge were, firstly, personal and the quality of the prize-winning Adams Prize of 1856. -
Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary
Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary Journal Item How to cite: Stenhouse, Brigitte (2020). Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary. The Mathematical Intelligencer (Early Access). For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2020 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1007/s00283-020-09998-6 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Mister Mary Somerville: Husband and Secretary BRIGITTE STENHOUSE ary Somerville’s life as a mathematician and mathematician). Although no scientific learned society had a savant in nineteenth-century Great Britain was formal statute barring women during Somerville’s lifetime, MM heavily influenced by her gender; as a woman, there was nonetheless a great reluctance even toallow women her access to the ideas and resources developed and into the buildings, never mind to endow them with the rights circulated in universities and scientific societies was highly of members. Except for the visit of the prolific author Margaret restricted. However, her engagement with learned institu- Cavendish in 1667, the Royal Society of London did not invite tions was by no means nonexistent, and although she was women into their hallowed halls until 1876, with the com- 90 before being elected a full member of any society mencement of their second conversazione [15, 163], which (Societa` Geografica Italiana, 1870), Somerville (Figure 1) women were permitted to attend.1 As late as 1886, on the nevertheless benefited from the resources and social nomination of Isis Pogson as a fellow, the Council of the Royal networks cultivated by such institutions from as early as Astronomical Society chose to interpret their constitution as 1812. -
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell JAMES CLERK MAXWELL Perspectives on his Life and Work Edited by raymond flood mark mccartney and andrew whitaker 3 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries c Oxford University Press 2014 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2014 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2013942195 ISBN 978–0–19–966437–5 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. -
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 1
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 1 CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. CHAPTER III. CHAPTER IV. CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. CHAPTER VII. CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. CHAPTER X. Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy The Project Gutenberg EBook of Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy by George Biddell Airy 2 License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy Author: George Biddell Airy Release Date: January 9, 2004 [EBook #10655] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR GEORGE AIRY *** Produced by Joseph Myers and PG Distributed Proofreaders AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, K.C.B., M.A., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., HONORARY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, ASTRONOMER ROYAL FROM 1836 TO 1881. EDITED BY WILFRID AIRY, B.A., M.Inst.C.E. 1896 PREFACE. The life of Airy was essentially that of a hard-working, business man, and differed from that of other hard-working people only in the quality and variety of his work. It was not an exciting life, but it was full of interest, and his work brought him into close relations with many scientific men, and with many men high in the State. -
Further Reading: Michael Faraday
Further Reading: Michael Faraday General reading Geoffrey Cantor, Michael Faraday: Sandemanian and Scientist. A Study of Science and Religion in the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1991). David Gooding, Experiment and the Making of Meaning: Human Agency in Scientific Observation and Experiment, (Dordrecht, 1991). David Gooding and Frank A.J.L. James (eds.), Faraday Rediscovered: Essays on the Life and Work of Michael Faraday, 1791‐1867, (London, 1985). Frank A.J.L. James (ed.), ‘The Common Purposes of Life’: Science and society at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, (Aldershot, 2002). Frank A.J.L. James, Michael Faraday: A very short Introduction. (Oxford, 2010) Alan E. Jeffreys, Michael Faraday: A List of His Lectures and Published Writings, (London, 1960). Published books by Faraday, mainly collections of papers and lecture notes, some published after his death: Chemical Manipulation, Being Instructions to Students in Chemistry. (1827). Experimental Researches in Electricity, Vol I, II& III (1837, 1844, 1855) Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859). W. Crookes. ed. A Course of six lectures on the Various Forces of Matter (1860) W. Crookes. ed. A Course of six lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle, (1861) W. Crookes. ed. On the Various Forces in Nature. (1873) The liquefaction of gases (1896.) Published texts by Faraday The vast majority of Faraday’s manuscripts, apart from letters, have been published on microfilm and cd. Frank A.J.L. James, Guide to the Microfilm edition of the Manuscripts of Michael Faraday (1791‐1867) from the Collections of the Royal Institution, The Institution of Electrical Engineers, The Guildhall Library [and] The Royal Society, (2nd ed., Wakefield, 2001). -
New Force at Large Distances
New force at large distances Daniel Grumiller Institute for Theoretical Physics Vienna University of Technology TEDx Vienna, November 2010 I What are the fundamental forces in Nature? I What is the nature of space, time and matter? Some questions physics cannot address: We live in the golden age of fundamental physics Goal: want to understand how the Universe works Some questions physics can address: I What is the Universe made of? (picture by NASA) D. Grumiller | New force 2/11 I What is the nature of space, time and matter? Some questions physics cannot address: We live in the golden age of fundamental physics Goal: want to understand how the Universe works Some questions physics can address: I What is the Universe made of? I What are the fundamental forces in Nature? (picture by lifesbalancebeam) D. Grumiller | New force 2/11 Some questions physics cannot address: We live in the golden age of fundamental physics Goal: want to understand how the Universe works Some questions physics can address: I What is the Universe made of? I What are the fundamental forces in Nature? I What is the nature of space, time and matter? (picture by spacescan.org) D. Grumiller | New force 2/11 We live in the golden age of fundamental physics Goal: want to understand how the Universe works Some questions physics can address: I What is the Universe made of? I What are the fundamental forces in Nature? I What is the nature of space, time and matter? Some questions physics cannot address: D. Grumiller | New force 2/11 What is the Universe made of? D. -
The Other Blue Planet Tapping, Ken
NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRC The other blue planet Tapping, Ken This publication could be one of several versions: author’s original, accepted manuscript or the publisher’s version. / La version de cette publication peut être l’une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l’auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l’éditeur. For the publisher’s version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l’éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous. Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur: https://doi.org/10.4224/23002752 Skygazing: Astronomy through the seasons, 2018-01-30 NRC Publications Record / Notice d'Archives des publications de CNRC: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=e8d4ccca-5079-4df5-9083-db0517aff329 https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=e8d4ccca-5079-4df5-9083-db0517aff329 Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/copyright READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE. L’accès à ce site Web et l’utilisation de son contenu sont assujettis aux conditions présentées dans le site https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/droits LISEZ CES CONDITIONS ATTENTIVEMENT AVANT D’UTILISER CE SITE WEB. Questions? Contact the NRC Publications Archive team at [email protected]. If you wish to email the authors directly, please see the first page of the publication for their contact information. Vous avez des questions? Nous pouvons vous aider. -
Europaische Gradmessung/Internationale
Festveranstaltung150 Jahre MitteleuropaischeGradmessung Vienna, 12 September2012. GeodesyinHungary and theRelationto(Mittel-) EuropaischeGradmessung/Internationale Erdmessung–A ShortHistoricalReview József Ádám Departmentof Geodesyand Surveying Budapest University of Technologyand Economics Contributioninthefollowingareas: -establishment of surveycontrolnetworks •horizontal(1862-1913) •vertical (1873-1913) -geodeticresearchand scientificactivitiesattheUniversities • Loránd Eötvös (Dept. of Physics, Budapest University) • István Kruspér, Lajos Bodola and Károly Oltay (Dept. of Geodesy and Surveying, TU Budapest) -organizationof theGeneral Conferenceof the •EuropaischeGradmessunginViennain1871, and •InternationaleErdmessunginBudapest in1906. J. J. Baeyer(1794-1885) Network sketchof theMitteleuropaischeGradmessung The StruveGeodeticArc (1816-1855) No Meeting Location Year I. General Conferences I.a."MitteleuropäischeGradmessung" (1862-1867) 1 Berlin, Prussia 1864 2 Berlin, Prussia 1867 I.b. „EuropäischeGradmessung”(1867-1886) 3 Vienna, Austria-Hungary 1871 4 Dresden, Saxony 1874 5 Stuttgart, Würtemberg 1877 6 Munich, Bavaria 1880 7 Rome, Italy 1883 8 Berlin, Prussia 1886 I.c. International GeodeticAssociation(InternationaleErdmessung) (1886-1919) 9 Paris, France 1889 10 Brussels, Belgium 1892 11 Berlin, Germany 1895 12 Stuttgart, Germany 1898 13 Paris, France 1900 14 Copenhagen, Denmark 1903 15 Budapest, Austria-Hungary 1906 16 Cambridge, United Kingdom 1909 17 Hamburg, Germany 1912 No Period Name Placeof Homestead 1 1864-1868 Peter Andreas -
Neptune Closest to Earth for 2020 - a September 2020 Sky Event from the Astronomy Club of Asheville
Neptune Closest to Earth for 2020 - a September 2020 Sky Event from the Astronomy Club of Asheville Earth reaches “opposition” with the solar Not to Scale system’s most distant planet on September 11th. At opposition, speedier Earth, moving counterclockwise on its inside lane, laps the outer planet, positioning the Sun directly opposite the Earth from Neptune. This puts Neptune closest to Earth for the year and in great observing position for those using a telescope. Rising at dusk and setting at dawn, the planet Neptune is visible all night during the month of September. Located in the constellation Aquarius, Neptune is positioned some 2.7 billion miles (or 4 light-hours) away from Earth at “opposition” this month. _________________________________ At magnitude 7.8, Neptune will appear as a small blue disk in most amateur telescopes. You will find Neptune along the ecliptic in the constellation Aquarius this year. In September, it will be located about 2° southeast of the 4.2 magnitude star Phi (φ) Aquarii. Like Uranus, Neptune has an upper atmosphere with significant methane gas (CH4). Methane strongly absorbs red light; thus, the blue end of the light spectrum, from the reflected sunlight, is what primarily passes through to our eyes, when observing this distant planet. Neptune’s Discovery Neptune was the 2nd solar system planet to be discovered! Uranus’ discovery preceded it, when William Herschel observed its blue disk, quite by accident, in 1781. But Uranus’ orbit had an unexplained problem – a deviation that astronomers called a “perturbation”. Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and Isaac Newton’s laws of motion and gravity could not adequately explain this perturbation in Uranus’ orbit. -
Recent News 28,270 MILES - WAY to GO!
Number 62 Spring 2017 TREASURE HUNT – 16 Where is this bridge (hint: it is not in the UK) and who designed it? Can you see the parabola and its tangent? Recent News 28,270 MILES - WAY TO GO! In October last year a record was set for the longest single road route ever worked out. The Travelling Salesperson Problem (TSP) was first posed in the 1930’s by Merrill Flood who was looking to solve a school bus routing problem in the US and it asks the following question: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?" This is an example of an optimisation problem and is of immense importance to businesses who need to make deliveries to many places as the shortest route between the warehouse and drop off points generally means considerable saving in time and money. The TSP also has applications in computing DNA sequences, aiming telescopes and designing computer chip circuits. William Cook and a team of researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada calculated a round route that starts in Portland, Dorset and finishes in Weymouth, four miles away has at least 100 times more stops than the previous longest TSP. It links 24,727 hostelries in the UK. EDITORIAL SQUARE NUMBERS Welcome back to a new term and a new year! We In SYMmetryplus 61, Autumn 2016, modular arithmetic congratulate Mathematical Pie for their 200th edition was used to find a prime factor of 283 1. -
Manfred Strumpf
Manfred Strumpf Geiger-Verlag, Horb am Neckar Cothas astronomische Epoche Inhalt Einführung Gotha als Zentrum der Naturwissenschaften im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert 5 Die Geschichte der Seebergsternwarte Die Sternwarte auf Schloß Friedenstein 8 Ernst II. und Zach begründen die Seebergsternwarte 12 Zachs Tätigkeit auf dem Seeberg Die Einrichtung der Sternwarte 18 Erste astronomische Beobachtungen in Gotha 19 Der erste internationale Astronomenkongreß 1798 19 Die Gründung der ersten astronomischen Zeitschriften 21 Ausbildung astronomischer Adjunkten 22 Gemeinsame Suche nach kleinen Planeten 22 Geodäsie an der Seebergsternwarte 24 Zachs Abschied von Gotha 25 Die Seebergsternwarte unter Bernhard August von Lindenau Die Verwaltung der Sternwarte von 1804-1808 28 1808: Die vernachlässigte Sternwarte wird wieder eingerichtet 28 Lindenau als Direktor 29 Die Arbeit in der neugestalteten Sternwarte '. 31 Die Adjunkten Nicolai und Encke 32 In Gotha wird eine neue astronomische Zeitschrift herausgegeben 35 Lindenau muß von der Astronomie Abschied nehmen 36 Johann Franz Encke als Astronom der Seebergsternwarte Die Berufung zum Adjunkten als Nachfolger Nicolais 38 Enckes astronomische Arbeiten in Gotha 38 Encke wird Vizedirektor 38 Enckes Memorandum von 1822 42 Encke wird zum Direktor der Seebergsternwarte ernannt und 1825 nach Berlin berufen . 42 Gothas astronomische Epoche Die Gothaer Sternwarten unter Peter Andreas Hansen Hansen übernimt 1825 die Seebergsternwarte 44 Hansen als astronomischer Beobachter 46 Der Himmelsmechaniker Hansen 46 Die Verwaltung -
The Mystery and Majesty
The mystery and majesty Nearly 40 years after THE SPACE AGE BLASTED off when the Soviet Union launched the Voyager 2 visited Uranus world’s first artificial satellite in 1957. Since then, humanity has explored our cosmic and Neptune, scientists are backyard with vigor — and yet two planets have fallen to the planetary probe wayside. eager for new expeditions. In the 63 years since Sputnik, humanity has only visited Neptune and Uranus once BY JOEL DAVIS — when Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in August 1989 40 ASTRONOMY • DECEMBER 2020 of the ICE GIANTS — and even that wasn’t entirely pre- interstellar mission, more than a dozen pro- In 1781, Uranus became the first planet planned. The unmitigated success of posals have been offered for return missions ever discovered using a telescope. Nearly 200 years later, Voyager 2 Voyager 1 and 2 on their original mission to one or both ice giants. So far, none have became the first spacecraft to visit to explore Jupiter and Saturn earned the made it past the proposal stage due to lack Uranus and Neptune, in 1986 and 1989 respectively. NASA/JPL twin spacecrafts further missions in our of substantial scientific interest. Effectively, solar system and beyond, with Neptune and the planetary research community has been Uranus acting as the last stops on a Grand giving the ice giants the cold shoulder. Tour of the outer solar system. But recently, exoplanet data began In the 31 years since Voyager 2 left the revealing the abundance of icy exoplanets Neptune system in 1989 and began its in our galaxy “and new questions about WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 41 With a rotation axis tilted more than 90 degrees compared to its orbital plane, Neptune likewise has a highly tilted rotation axis and tilted magnetic axis.