History of mathematics: John Napier

Napier

John Napier also known as Nepair (or Neper) born in 1550 and from an early age is recognized as a genius. At 13 he attended the faculty of theology; He tooks the side of the Anglicans. Fails in the theological he retreats on mathematics.

It's thought that he wasn't the first in the invention of logarithms (maybe first came Jacob Buergi) but Napier used them as a means of calculation and was the true inventor of logarithms as we know them today. The basic "e" most likely was used in the construction of the Parthenon and the pyramids in Egypt. He is remembered also for the design of weapons such as tanks and burning mirrors. At Napier is also called a unit, the "Napier" that is a unit of telecommunications.

The Victorian Age

Victorian Age

There are 3 phases of this period:

• The ‘30-‘40s: after Napoleonic wars the economy is in trouble; in England there weren’t rules about industrialisation.
• The ‘50-‘70s: it was a rich period for many people; good marketing and lots of discover. Many reforms were passing for children education, workers safety,… Middle classes rose up and reached the power of aristocracy; it’s called the “Age of contradictions” or the “Age of novel/fiction”.
• The ‘80-‘90s: Germany and USA rose up and challenged UK economical predominance, the empire start to be too much big for a powerful control.

The Great Exhibition (universal exhibition) of the 1851 in London was a great occasion to show the industrial power of the U.K. In 1876 Queen Victoria was acclaimed Empress of India.

The colonial empire was so big (Australia, South Africa, Caribbean isles, Pacific isles, Bermuda, India) that English citizens start to be in doubt of this political line: cruel colonisations, money for bureaucracy and for soldiers; the empire costs were too heavy for U.K. economics.

Reforms

• The People's Charter (1838): presented by a radical group, talk about electios but failed its objective. Points: Universal suffrage over 25 years of age, salary for members of parliament, annual election, secret ballots.
• 1840s: new laws for workers: reduce daily working hours, improve safety, sanitarian protection, more rights in general.
• First reform Bill (1842): vote for all the male who had a certain annual income (not so high), reform of constituency because the population distribution changed radically in those years.
• Second reform Bill (1867): the annual income to vote is lower.
• 1872: the secret ballots become law.

The 6 points of "The People's Charter" (1838)

1)    A vote for every man 21 years of age , of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime.

2)    The secret ballot. To protect the elector in the exercise in his vote.

3)    No property qualification for members of parliament, thus enabling the constituencies to return the men of their choice, be he rich or poor.

4)    Payment of members, thus enabling an honest tradesman, working man, or other person, to serve a constituency, when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the Country.

5)    Equal Constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing small constituencies to swamp the vote of large ones.

6)    Annual parliaments, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, seems though a constituency might be vote once in 7 years, even with the ballot, no purse could buy a constituency under a system of universal suffrage in each ensuing twelvemonth; and seems members when elected for a year only would not be able to defy and betray their constituency like now.

The final of "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"

Last stanzas of the ballad by Coleridge

Farewell, farewell! But this I tell

to thee, thou Wedding-Guest!

He prayeth well, who loveth well

both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best

all things both great and small;

for the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,

whose beard with age is hoar,

is gone; and now the Wedding-Guest

turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,

and is of sense forlorn:

a sadder and a wiser man

he rose the morrow morn.

The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner

Notes of "The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner

Tragic story with a final redemption; attention for the sound with rhymes, alliteration, … It is longer and more complex than medieval ballads.

Magic Elements

Recurrent magic elements, in particular numbers: 3 (Earth, Moon, Sun  or the holy trinity) is the symbol of perfection; also multiples of 3: 9, 12, 33; also 7 (the days of the creation).

In the rhyme of the ancient mariner: 3 are the guests stopped; 9 are the days the albatross live with the mariners; 7 are the days that the mariner spend alone; 7 are the fathom by the surface of a swimming spirits that push the boat when he return home; 9 is the tarots number for the hermit.

Mysterious are the glittering eyes which seem to have particular powers. The eyes of the dead crew seem to have a special nature.

The albatross is a bird of good hope and it’s also the reincarnation of the mariners that were died in the sea; the food given to the albatross is considered a symbol of  gift to nature.

The albatross is a victim and it’s comparable to the killing of Christ: both of them bring a good message; the albatross is killed with a crossbow, Christ was crucified on a cross.

The wisps around the ship when the death and the life in death are playing dies to win the lifes of the mariners.

Medieval ballads

Composed by anonymous and transmitted orally; it was acted, language was simple; It consists in a series of rapid flashes of events; one single situation with dramatic elements; presence of dialogue; four line stanzas; repetition with change of small parts to allow the storyline go on (incremental repetition); not a clear separation between magic and real elements.

Interpretations

Religious ones:

-the story of mankind (the original sin of killing the albatross, the punishment and the redemption); -the story of the Ancient Mariner as a man in a figured form;

-albatross is Christ that saves the men that only after understand it.

Others:

-The poet is the albatross that can only fly high in the sky but is killed by men and only after he is recognized as a poet;

-the Night is romanticism and the day is the enlightenment (good things on night, bad during the day);

Psychoanalytic interpretation: the albatross represents the controversial relation with his mother (of Coleridge);

The sea between what is rational and irrational (surface rational; depth irrational).