Pub Date : 2017-10-30DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1388101
R. Wagner
nating, and covers ground that has not been dealt with in any great detail elsewhere (or at least not in English). The range of topics dealt with, from applied mathematics to mathematical logic, provides what feels like a comprehensive view of the interaction between the two mathematical communities in question. Moreover, the focus on individuals, and the extensive use of their correspondence, serves to bring this interaction to life. As in any such collection of essays, the quality of writing varies from chapter to chapter, but the contributions to the book complement each other nicely, with the result that a well-rounded picture emerges of the links between two significant sections of the European mathematical community in the later years of the nineteenth century, and the early part of the twentieth.
{"title":"Mathematical knowledge and the interplay of practices, by José Ferreirós","authors":"R. Wagner","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1388101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1388101","url":null,"abstract":"nating, and covers ground that has not been dealt with in any great detail elsewhere (or at least not in English). The range of topics dealt with, from applied mathematics to mathematical logic, provides what feels like a comprehensive view of the interaction between the two mathematical communities in question. Moreover, the focus on individuals, and the extensive use of their correspondence, serves to bring this interaction to life. As in any such collection of essays, the quality of writing varies from chapter to chapter, but the contributions to the book complement each other nicely, with the result that a well-rounded picture emerges of the links between two significant sections of the European mathematical community in the later years of the nineteenth century, and the early part of the twentieth.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132300854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-02DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1319160
Jacqueline M. Dewar
This article describes an interdisciplinary course on women and mathematics and a scholarly investigation of its impact. Grounded in the biographies of ten women mathematicians (Hypatia to Emmy Noether), the course engages students in mathematical topics related to the women's mathematical work and addresses gender equity in mathematics education and mathematics-related careers in the USA. Many of the themes that emerge from examining the lives and work of these historical figures remain relevant today. The course encourages students, many of whom are future K–12 teachers, to move away from seeing mathematics as a study of numbers and to adopt a richer, more expert view. The students also learn about twenty-first-century role models for women doing mathematics, gain knowledge of equitable classroom practices, and–in the case of future teachers—resolve to incorporate these into their teaching. Potential implications for undergraduate teaching practice and teacher preparation programs are noted.
{"title":"Women and mathematics: a course and a scholarly investigation","authors":"Jacqueline M. Dewar","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1319160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1319160","url":null,"abstract":"This article describes an interdisciplinary course on women and mathematics and a scholarly investigation of its impact. Grounded in the biographies of ten women mathematicians (Hypatia to Emmy Noether), the course engages students in mathematical topics related to the women's mathematical work and addresses gender equity in mathematics education and mathematics-related careers in the USA. Many of the themes that emerge from examining the lives and work of these historical figures remain relevant today. The course encourages students, many of whom are future K–12 teachers, to move away from seeing mathematics as a study of numbers and to adopt a richer, more expert view. The students also learn about twenty-first-century role models for women doing mathematics, gain knowledge of equitable classroom practices, and–in the case of future teachers—resolve to incorporate these into their teaching. Potential implications for undergraduate teaching practice and teacher preparation programs are noted.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123063360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-02DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2016.1244749
Christopher D. Hollings
{"title":"‘Mathematical Biography: A MacTutor Celebration’","authors":"Christopher D. Hollings","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2016.1244749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2016.1244749","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126781149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-08-14DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1355641
H. K. Sørensen
B iographies of mathematicians may be written for any number of more or less explicitly stated reasons: The biographer might have the ambition to present ‘accurate’, ‘factual’ or ‘objective’ accounts of past lives; but in reality, his biography is only an ‘imperfect sketch’ essentially framed by the choices he has made, as one mathematical biographer has observed (see Halsted 1895, 106; see also Sørensen 2016, 88, 93). These choices are, in turn, subject to the availability of sources, to the expertise and interest of the biographer, and to the context in which the biography is intended to be read. Thus, it is possible for different authors in different contexts to write multiple biographies of the same protagonist; and collections of biographies about different people can serve both as a dictionary with dates of birth and death, and as corpuses that present past lives to modern readers for them to learn something. The biographical genre has developed substantially over the centuries with inputs from various practices. From obituaries and depictions of the Saints, hagiographic characteristica such as the framing in turns of positive traits worthy of emulation have entered and endured in biographies (see also France 2002). And many other intellectual contexts have added analytical perspectives such as philosophical, psychological, social, economical, and biological frames for understanding the lives of those worthy of interest. Additional dimensions are added when the biographee is a scientist or a mathematician whose work and professional context and values may be directly accessible only to small readerships (for just some discussions on scientific biography, see, for example, Nye 2006; Porter 2006; S€ oderqvist 2007). Yet, when the identities (professional or otherwise) of the biographee, the biographer, and the intended reader align, biographies can become valuable entry points into studying these identities and the contexts in which they are formed. Although both deal with the past, history and biography are distinct endeavours in that they seek to attain different objectives, as Francis Bacon (1561–1626) argued (see also Caine 2010, 9ff). Biographies are essentially focused on people of perceived importance, and their purpose is often to make important individuals understandable and familiar to present readers. Other historical accounts, by comparison, either chronologies or narrations, seek to represent and understand complex events and dynamics by unravelling causes and contexts.
{"title":"Studying appropriations of past lives: using metabiographical approaches in the history of mathematics","authors":"H. K. Sørensen","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1355641","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1355641","url":null,"abstract":"B iographies of mathematicians may be written for any number of more or less explicitly stated reasons: The biographer might have the ambition to present ‘accurate’, ‘factual’ or ‘objective’ accounts of past lives; but in reality, his biography is only an ‘imperfect sketch’ essentially framed by the choices he has made, as one mathematical biographer has observed (see Halsted 1895, 106; see also Sørensen 2016, 88, 93). These choices are, in turn, subject to the availability of sources, to the expertise and interest of the biographer, and to the context in which the biography is intended to be read. Thus, it is possible for different authors in different contexts to write multiple biographies of the same protagonist; and collections of biographies about different people can serve both as a dictionary with dates of birth and death, and as corpuses that present past lives to modern readers for them to learn something. The biographical genre has developed substantially over the centuries with inputs from various practices. From obituaries and depictions of the Saints, hagiographic characteristica such as the framing in turns of positive traits worthy of emulation have entered and endured in biographies (see also France 2002). And many other intellectual contexts have added analytical perspectives such as philosophical, psychological, social, economical, and biological frames for understanding the lives of those worthy of interest. Additional dimensions are added when the biographee is a scientist or a mathematician whose work and professional context and values may be directly accessible only to small readerships (for just some discussions on scientific biography, see, for example, Nye 2006; Porter 2006; S€ oderqvist 2007). Yet, when the identities (professional or otherwise) of the biographee, the biographer, and the intended reader align, biographies can become valuable entry points into studying these identities and the contexts in which they are formed. Although both deal with the past, history and biography are distinct endeavours in that they seek to attain different objectives, as Francis Bacon (1561–1626) argued (see also Caine 2010, 9ff). Biographies are essentially focused on people of perceived importance, and their purpose is often to make important individuals understandable and familiar to present readers. Other historical accounts, by comparison, either chronologies or narrations, seek to represent and understand complex events and dynamics by unravelling causes and contexts.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130938369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-06-01DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1325297
Christopher D. Hollings, U. Martin, A. Rice
Ada, Countess of Lovelace, is remembered for a paper published in 1843, which translated and considerably extended an article about the unbuilt Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computer designed by the mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. Her substantial appendices, nearly twice the length of the original work, contain an account of the principles of the machine, along with a table often described as ‘the first computer program’. In this paper we look at Lovelace's education before 1840, which encompassed older traditions of practical geometry; newer textbooks influenced by continental approaches; wide reading; and a fascination with machinery. We also challenge judgements by Dorothy Stein and by Doron Swade of Lovelace's mathematical knowledge and skills before 1840, which have impacted later scholarly and popular discourse.
{"title":"The early mathematical education of Ada Lovelace","authors":"Christopher D. Hollings, U. Martin, A. Rice","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1325297","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1325297","url":null,"abstract":"Ada, Countess of Lovelace, is remembered for a paper published in 1843, which translated and considerably extended an article about the unbuilt Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computer designed by the mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. Her substantial appendices, nearly twice the length of the original work, contain an account of the principles of the machine, along with a table often described as ‘the first computer program’. In this paper we look at Lovelace's education before 1840, which encompassed older traditions of practical geometry; newer textbooks influenced by continental approaches; wide reading; and a fascination with machinery. We also challenge judgements by Dorothy Stein and by Doron Swade of Lovelace's mathematical knowledge and skills before 1840, which have impacted later scholarly and popular discourse.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114058251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-05-30DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1315520
Sydney Padua
The story of how Charles Babbage, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, polymath, and tinkerer, almost invented the computer in the 1830s has long been an opening parable in computer science textbooks. The murkier but irresistible subplot that he was assisted by so dramatic a figure as the estranged daughter of Lord Byron has taken this cul-de-sac of history into the realm of myth. Babbage, Lovelace, and the unrealised calculating engines fuel an industry of steampunk fantasies, one of which was my graphic novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, so kindly honoured by the BSHM with the Neumann Prize in 2015.
{"title":"Picturing Lovelace, Babbage, and the Analytical Engine: a cartoonist in mathematical biography","authors":"Sydney Padua","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1315520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1315520","url":null,"abstract":"The story of how Charles Babbage, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, polymath, and tinkerer, almost invented the computer in the 1830s has long been an opening parable in computer science textbooks. The murkier but irresistible subplot that he was assisted by so dramatic a figure as the estranged daughter of Lord Byron has taken this cul-de-sac of history into the realm of myth. Babbage, Lovelace, and the unrealised calculating engines fuel an industry of steampunk fantasies, one of which was my graphic novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, so kindly honoured by the BSHM with the Neumann Prize in 2015.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130047468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-05-25DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1325298
Isobel Falconer
ings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 36(2) (2016b), 76–81. Sørensen, Henrik Kragh, ‘Kildecentreret matematikhistorie i praksis: En kort indføring i matematikhistorisk metode’, RePoSS: Research Publications on Science Studies 38, Aarhus: Centre for Science Studies, University of Aarhus, April 2016a. http://css.au.dk/ reposs Sørensen, Henrik Kragh, ‘Kildecentreret matematikhistorie i gymnasiet: Multi-purpose materialer og didaktisering’, Matematikhistorie i sma bidder (www.matematikhistorie.dk) 2016b. http://wp.me/p1LRSg-ew Wilson, Robin, Lewis Carroll in Numberland, London: Penguin, 2008.
{"title":"The Thomsons of Belfast","authors":"Isobel Falconer","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1325298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1325298","url":null,"abstract":"ings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 36(2) (2016b), 76–81. Sørensen, Henrik Kragh, ‘Kildecentreret matematikhistorie i praksis: En kort indføring i matematikhistorisk metode’, RePoSS: Research Publications on Science Studies 38, Aarhus: Centre for Science Studies, University of Aarhus, April 2016a. http://css.au.dk/ reposs Sørensen, Henrik Kragh, ‘Kildecentreret matematikhistorie i gymnasiet: Multi-purpose materialer og didaktisering’, Matematikhistorie i sma bidder (www.matematikhistorie.dk) 2016b. http://wp.me/p1LRSg-ew Wilson, Robin, Lewis Carroll in Numberland, London: Penguin, 2008.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122655167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-05-22DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1326216
L. Rodríguez
Frigyes Riesz (22 January 1880 to 28 February 1956), was a Hungarian mathematician today best known for his work on functional analysis. His biography contains reference only to a few events of his life. The present paper intends to contribute to a critical revision of Riesz's biography focusing on three highly politicized moments of his life by using historical sources that have not been studied yet. The focus lies on the following moments: at the end of the First World War, Riesz described in a letter the tense situation in Koloszvár before the exile of the whole university. In the 1920s, he founded in Szeged a new mathematical journal and wrote to colleagues asking for support. During the Second World War, his Jewish ancestry determined the fate of his relatives and of himself, and caused his colleagues abroad to become worried about him.
{"title":"Frigyes Riesz between the two World Wars","authors":"L. Rodríguez","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1326216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1326216","url":null,"abstract":"Frigyes Riesz (22 January 1880 to 28 February 1956), was a Hungarian mathematician today best known for his work on functional analysis. His biography contains reference only to a few events of his life. The present paper intends to contribute to a critical revision of Riesz's biography focusing on three highly politicized moments of his life by using historical sources that have not been studied yet. The focus lies on the following moments: at the end of the First World War, Riesz described in a letter the tense situation in Koloszvár before the exile of the whole university. In the 1920s, he founded in Szeged a new mathematical journal and wrote to colleagues asking for support. During the Second World War, his Jewish ancestry determined the fate of his relatives and of himself, and caused his colleagues abroad to become worried about him.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125804406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-05-22DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1318248
A. Davis
J ohn Fauvel (1947–2001) was a past President of the BSHM, with a flair for pinpointing unusual topics, and in the 1990s he provided the motivation for this research into mathematical women. It soon became clear that the research partitioned itself into two supplementary strands, which had to be dealt with separately, and the purpose of this short paper is to ensure that people are aware of the existence of both strands, and the linkage between them. Strand A was concerned with identifying the individual women who contributed to the development of mathematics, while Strand B involved a knowledge of their works, which provide the evidence. Fauvel’s contribution was significant because, when I was a tutor on the Open University History of Mathematics course, and remarked on the very few women mentioned in it, he encouraged me to apply for a fellowship grant for a research project to improve the situation myself—which eventually generated the resources presented here. For Strand A, the names of only a handful of really renowned women were already known (even fewer of them writing in English), so it was necessary to start from scratch to generate more candidates. We decided to search among female honours graduates in mathematics within the British Isles, and this involved creating a list of all such women who became graduates as soon as that possibility became available to them. It is this list which has been generously welcomed by MacTutor and has been incorporated into their website as the Davis Historical Archive. Unfortunately, this was not initially straightforward, in the absence of any easilyavailable publication which set out the universities of the British Isles in order of date of foundation. In the event, having discovered those dates for myself, I had then to add the important information as to whether each Charter permitted the admission of men and women on equal terms. The outcome was most satisfactory in that it turned out that every university of the British Isles founded after 1878 (when London University admitted women) had followed this progressive example, and it was only the more ancient, traditional universities in England, Scotland, and Ireland that dragged their feet. So it is pleasing that an enquiry simply relating to the history of mathematics has incidentally given rise to some useful social background illuminating the history of university education for women in general.
{"title":"Mathematical women—creating historical resources","authors":"A. Davis","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1318248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1318248","url":null,"abstract":"J ohn Fauvel (1947–2001) was a past President of the BSHM, with a flair for pinpointing unusual topics, and in the 1990s he provided the motivation for this research into mathematical women. It soon became clear that the research partitioned itself into two supplementary strands, which had to be dealt with separately, and the purpose of this short paper is to ensure that people are aware of the existence of both strands, and the linkage between them. Strand A was concerned with identifying the individual women who contributed to the development of mathematics, while Strand B involved a knowledge of their works, which provide the evidence. Fauvel’s contribution was significant because, when I was a tutor on the Open University History of Mathematics course, and remarked on the very few women mentioned in it, he encouraged me to apply for a fellowship grant for a research project to improve the situation myself—which eventually generated the resources presented here. For Strand A, the names of only a handful of really renowned women were already known (even fewer of them writing in English), so it was necessary to start from scratch to generate more candidates. We decided to search among female honours graduates in mathematics within the British Isles, and this involved creating a list of all such women who became graduates as soon as that possibility became available to them. It is this list which has been generously welcomed by MacTutor and has been incorporated into their website as the Davis Historical Archive. Unfortunately, this was not initially straightforward, in the absence of any easilyavailable publication which set out the universities of the British Isles in order of date of foundation. In the event, having discovered those dates for myself, I had then to add the important information as to whether each Charter permitted the admission of men and women on equal terms. The outcome was most satisfactory in that it turned out that every university of the British Isles founded after 1878 (when London University admitted women) had followed this progressive example, and it was only the more ancient, traditional universities in England, Scotland, and Ireland that dragged their feet. So it is pleasing that an enquiry simply relating to the history of mathematics has incidentally given rise to some useful social background illuminating the history of university education for women in general.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130586348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-05-16DOI: 10.1080/17498430.2017.1317979
S. Skiena, Charles B. Ward
We have developed algorithms that measure the relative historical significance of the over 800,000 people appearing in Wikipedia, producing significance rankings that correlate well with a wide variety of validation criteria. In our book Who's bigger?: where historical figures really rank (Skiena and Ward 2013), we use our significance scores to provide insight into a variety of historical and cultural questions. Here we apply our significance measure to study several issues related to the history and stature of computing. Who are the most historically significant computer scientists? The most significant Turing award winners? The Turing award purports to be the ‘Nobel Prize of Computing’, but does the stature of these awards really compare? Our answers to all these questions prove revealing. To lend credence to our findings, we describe our ranking methodology and validation criteria. Our complete rankings for all historical figures in Wikipedia are available for inspection at http://www.whoisbigger.com.
{"title":"Who's bigger? Where computer scientists really rank","authors":"S. Skiena, Charles B. Ward","doi":"10.1080/17498430.2017.1317979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17498430.2017.1317979","url":null,"abstract":"We have developed algorithms that measure the relative historical significance of the over 800,000 people appearing in Wikipedia, producing significance rankings that correlate well with a wide variety of validation criteria. In our book Who's bigger?: where historical figures really rank (Skiena and Ward 2013), we use our significance scores to provide insight into a variety of historical and cultural questions. Here we apply our significance measure to study several issues related to the history and stature of computing. Who are the most historically significant computer scientists? The most significant Turing award winners? The Turing award purports to be the ‘Nobel Prize of Computing’, but does the stature of these awards really compare? Our answers to all these questions prove revealing. To lend credence to our findings, we describe our ranking methodology and validation criteria. Our complete rankings for all historical figures in Wikipedia are available for inspection at http://www.whoisbigger.com.","PeriodicalId":211442,"journal":{"name":"BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116585322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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