| Title: | Exploring the Best Joke of the 19th Century: The History of Mathematics in Action |
| Speaker: | Deborah A. Kent Assistant Professor of Mathematics Mathematics and Computer Science Hillsdale College Hillsdale, Michigan |
| Abstract: | The story surrounding of Neptune's discovery provides an excitingillustration of what historians of mathematics do. Neptune was first sightedas a new planet on 23 September 1846 at the Berlin observatory. Thesensational news reached London a week later and the ensuing dispute createdone of the great (and ongoing) priority debates in the history of science.About a month after the initial observation, word of the new planet alsoarrived in America where the controversy captured both popular interest andscientific attention. A handful of nineteenth-century scientists who shareda vision for professionalizing science in America viewed the Neptune affairas an opportunity to establish the legitimacy of American science inresponse to perceived European scientific superiority. While Europeanadministrators of science quibbled over the priority question, the Harvardmathematician Benjamin Peirce — considered an upstart Americanscientist — dared to question the mathematical particulars of the discovery.Recent twentieth-century events and manuscript discoveries furtherilluminate the story of planetary controversy. |
| Location: | Palenske 227 |
| Date: | 10/11/2007 |
| Time: | 3:10 PM |
@abstract{MCS:Colloquium:DeborahAKent
AssistantProfessorofMathematics
MathematicsandComputerScience
HillsdaleCollege
HillsdaleMichigan:2007:10:11,
author = "{Deborah A. Kent
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Mathematics and Computer Science
Hillsdale College
Hillsdale, Michigan}",
title = "{Exploring the Best Joke of the 19th Century: The History of Mathematics in Action}",
address = "{Albion College Mathematics and Computer Science Colloquium}",
month = "{11 October}",
year = "{2007}"
}