Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,608
- 910
Robert Recorde was one of those people so extraordinarily ahead of his time that he seemed destined to come to a tragic end. In the 16th century, he made advances in economics, medicine, theology, and poetry. But his greatest contribution is taught to every elementary school child, and it arguably laid the groundwork for modern computer science. He invented the equals sign.
From urine to popular science
Recorde was born in 1510 in Tenby, Wales. At age 14, he went to Oxford University. At age 21, he was teaching mathematics there, although scholarship wasn't his first career goal. Over the next few years, he also earned a degree in medicine and wrote the exquisitely titled monograph The Urinal of Physick, detailing what a physician could learn from a patient's urine.
Either medicine proved less fascinating than Recorde had anticipated, or less lucrative. Over the next decade, he moved from medicine to finance and oversaw mints in Bristol, London, and Dublin. The writer's life, however, clearly appealed to him. He produced a large and varied body of work: theological tracts defending Protestantism, poems, and most importantly, textbooks.
Not only did Recorde explain astronomy, geometry, and arithmetic in successive textbooks, but he explained them in English. Previous works on mathematics were written in Latin, meaning the only people who could read them already had an extensive education. Recorde wrote in English for the British layman. For these busy learners, he came up with his most famous invention. His final book, The Whetstone of Witte, published in 1557, gave the world the equals sign.
=
Perhaps a man trained to study urine and keep control over currency has a pragmatic mind. Recorde found it irritating to have to state over and over that one side of an equation was equal to the other side. He wrote, with obvious annoyance and whimsical spelling, "And to avoide the tedious repetition of these woordes, is equalle to, I will sette as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles." Instead of using a phrase to convey meaning, he would convey the same meaning with a symbol. What symbol could be more appropriate than a pair of equal-length lines? Nothing, Recorde explained, "noe 2 thyngs, can be moare equalle."
The strange and righteous history of the equals sign
I had no idea where it came from.
From urine to popular science
Recorde was born in 1510 in Tenby, Wales. At age 14, he went to Oxford University. At age 21, he was teaching mathematics there, although scholarship wasn't his first career goal. Over the next few years, he also earned a degree in medicine and wrote the exquisitely titled monograph The Urinal of Physick, detailing what a physician could learn from a patient's urine.
Either medicine proved less fascinating than Recorde had anticipated, or less lucrative. Over the next decade, he moved from medicine to finance and oversaw mints in Bristol, London, and Dublin. The writer's life, however, clearly appealed to him. He produced a large and varied body of work: theological tracts defending Protestantism, poems, and most importantly, textbooks.
Not only did Recorde explain astronomy, geometry, and arithmetic in successive textbooks, but he explained them in English. Previous works on mathematics were written in Latin, meaning the only people who could read them already had an extensive education. Recorde wrote in English for the British layman. For these busy learners, he came up with his most famous invention. His final book, The Whetstone of Witte, published in 1557, gave the world the equals sign.
=
Perhaps a man trained to study urine and keep control over currency has a pragmatic mind. Recorde found it irritating to have to state over and over that one side of an equation was equal to the other side. He wrote, with obvious annoyance and whimsical spelling, "And to avoide the tedious repetition of these woordes, is equalle to, I will sette as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles." Instead of using a phrase to convey meaning, he would convey the same meaning with a symbol. What symbol could be more appropriate than a pair of equal-length lines? Nothing, Recorde explained, "noe 2 thyngs, can be moare equalle."
The strange and righteous history of the equals sign
I had no idea where it came from.
