Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #UndergroundMathematics

Most recents (2)

šŸ„³Publication day for #UndergroundMathematics! Thanks to everyone involvedā¤ļø

Hereā€™s a shortšŸ§µto its main argument: How did practical mathematics and a culture of accuracy developed in EM Europe? Rationality wasnā€™t just about scholars, it included craftsmen and artisans too!
Practical mathematics was ubiquitous, from wine gauging to mercantile arithmetic. It was widely depicted, as here in ā€˜The Measurersā€™ (see Jim Bennettā€™s great piece on this painting @HSMOxford). And yet, usual narratives have forgotten a whole discipline: subterranean geometry!
The Geometria Subterranea was also known as Markscheidekunst or ā€˜the art of setting limitsā€™. These surveyors were working underground in the silver mines of the Empire, in Scandinavia and Spain, but who knows what their mathematics was? Or how it was taught and improved?
Read 9 tweets
Today a šŸ§µon mining maps, how to look at them, and what they tell us about how people perceived the underground world! With bits of map history, paper history, and obviously lots of #UndergroundMathematics. For the untrained eye, these maps are difficult to understand... #HistSTM
These maps are in fact a recent development, mostly in the 17th century. An old minerā€™s proverb said that ā€œno one can see through stoneā€, and in fact it used to be a huge problem: how to see limits of concessions, to locate water wheels and ore vein?
In the 15th c. there was virtually no room for maps. Extraction was monitored directly, by visitations from mining masters and jurors, as their ā€˜Augenscheinā€™ (visual inspection) was decisive. Things began to change bc rulers wanted to monitor their underground riches at distance
Read 11 tweets

Related hashtags

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!