Mathematics

Problemata Proposita J. Young a D. Pitcairne, 1683-1687

Item

Identifier: Coll-33/Folio C [187]

Scope and Contents

Broadsheet excerpts of the problem and condemnation in the joust between Archibald Pitcairne and John Young, which lost the latter his mathematics chair at Edinburgh. There follows a rumination, perhaps in Pitcairne's hand or perhaps Gregory's, on scientific education.

Dates: 1683-1687

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of David Gregory / Folio C

Prop D.G. de Figura radii in medio diformi protractatus, 28 Dec. 1697

Item

Identifier: Coll-33/Quarto A [100]

Scope and Contents

An abortive attempt by Gregory to show that atmospheric refraction bends a light ray into the form of a cycloid, the curve of quickest descent.

Dates: 28 Dec. 1697

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of David Gregory / Quarto A

Propositiones D.A. Pitcairnei, c1692

Item

Identifier: Coll-33/Quarto A [92]

Scope and Contents

4 scraps, the first three in Archibald Pitcairne's hand, containing scrawled thoughts on one or two geometric processions, and numerous fragments of book titles, names, and addresses, apparently all relating to Gregory's time in Holland. These may be all that is left of item 92.

Dates: c1692

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of David Gregory / Quarto A

Propositiones Quaedam de Ludo Aleae ..., s.d.

Item

Identifier: Coll-33/Folio C [22]

Scope and Contents

Propositions from Huygens on dicing and games of chance generally. (He may mean 'tessella' where he refers to 'tessera', or perhaps he refers to dominoes.)

Dates: s.d.

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of David Gregory / Folio C

Quadratura curva in l=dx(n-1), 8 June 1688

Item

Identifier: Coll-33/Folio C [197]

Scope and Contents

In which Gregory refines the integration technique he had developed in the Exercitatio.

Dates: 8 June 1688

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of David Gregory / Folio C

Quadratura testudinis velifirmis Florentini in Phil. Trans., 1694

Item

Identifier: Coll-33/Folio C [97]

Scope and Contents Another of three drafts of a paper (see item C 67) to solve the famous problem of drawing in a hemispherical dome four apposing windows, so that, when these were removed, the remaining surface of the dome could be exactly measured. Glued to the last page is a small table of azimuths or elevations along the sea route from Leith to Dover and beyond, and a jotting of several partial book titles (by Byle, James Gregory, Apian, Snell, Kepler, and one other), and item C 101, for whose...

Dates: 1694