The History of Mathematical Tables: From Sumer to Spreadsheets

by Martin Campbell-Kelly (Editor), Mary Croarken (Editor), Raymond Flood (Editor)

The oldest known mathematical table was found in the ancient Sumerian city of Shuruppag in southern Iraq. Since then, tables have been an important feature of mathematical activity; table making and printed tabular matter are important precursors to modern computing and information processing. This book contains a series of articles summarising the technical, institutional and intellectual history of mathematical tables from earliest times until the late twentieth century. It covers mathematical tables (the most important computing aid for several hundred years until the 1960s), data tables (eg. Census tables), professional tables (eg. insurance tables), and spreadsheets - the most recent tabular innovation. The book is presented in a scholarly yet accessible way, making appropriate use of text boxes and illustrations. Each chapter has a frontispiece featuring a table along with a small illustration of the source where the table was first displayed. Most chapters have sidebars telling

Genres: History

372 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2003

About the author

A specialist in the history of computing, Martin Campbell-Kelly is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick.

Reviews

[Martin]

Perhaps not for everyone, but as someone for whom the table of numbers is both the systemic facilitator of day-to-day life (uhh, that would be anyone who, against all odds, is reading this) and the active subject of daily bread-earning, this was a very interesting read.

[Robert Grossman]

If you ever wondered what devices we used for computing before slide rules, calculators and computers, this it the book to read.