Mathematics

First published over the course of more than twenty years (1751-1777), the 32 volumes of the Encyclopédie include 21 volumes of text with more than 70,000 articles on subjects ranging from asparagus to zodiac. The remaining 11 volumes contain beautifully engraved plates illustrating many of the articles. The Encyclopédie was the major achievement of the French Enlightenment whose aim, in Diderot's words, was to "change the common way of thinking" through the expansion of knowledge and the development of critical modes of thought.

The Encyclopédie was a collaborative project, the work of a "society of men of letters," as its title page declared. By the time the last volume was published, more than 140 people had contributed articles to its pages. In the same spirit, this website is a collaborative effort of volunteer translators who share an interest in the Enlightenment and a belief in the value of making freely available to English readers articles from the Encyclopédie. The articles you will find here reflect the interests and expertise of the translators. Although we cannot hope to translate all 70,000 articles, we will continue to post new translations as they come in. This is an ongoing project to which we hope many more people will contribute.

For students and teachers, the Encyclopédie is a crucial resource as well as an important gateway into the project of Enlightenment. The Collaborative Translation Website allows you to browse articles that have been translated and to search the database of translations in a variety of ways. You will also find links to the original French versions of translated articles. Other enhancements are planned.

The VMI evolved on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz from 1975 until the retirement of Ralph Abraham as Professor of Mathematics in 1994, when it moved to a new location in downtown Santa Cruz. It was incorporated as an educational institution in August of 1996. In January of 1997 it acquired 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the IRS.
The VMI exists for these reasons:
Research on the frontiers of chaos theory, especially for massively complex dynamical systems.
Applications of chaos theory to model complex natural systems, for example, the global economy, large-scale ecosystems, and social systems.
Reform in the curriculum and teaching methods of mathematics in schools, all levels.
Revealing the beauty and importance of mathematics to a broad public.

Mathematical Snippets: The Pythagorean Theorem, Archimedes' Tombstone, The Möbius Strip, The Koch Snowflake Curve, Plateau's Problem, Counting to Infinity

This guide describes the scientific and technological manuscript collections in the Special Collections Department of the University Libraries at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, or Virginia Tech. The department contains approximately 4500 cubic feet of manuscript material (the personal papers of individuals and families, and the records of businesses and organizations) spanning the years from the fifteenth century to the present, with the greatest concentration of material in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

If you pay attention to the dates of Easter and Passover from year to year, you will notice that although they usually fall within a week or so of each other, on occasion Passover falls about a month after (Gregorian) Easter. At the present time, this happens in in the 3rd, 11th, and 14th years of the Metonoic Cycle (i.e., when the Golden Number equals 3, 11, or 14). The reason for this discrepancy is the fact that although the Metonic Cycle is very good, it is not perfect (as we've seen in this course). In particular, it is a little off if you use it to predict the length of the tropical year. So, over the centuries the date of the vernal equinox, as predicted by the Metonic Cycle, has been drifting to later and later dates. So, the rule for Passover, which was originally intended to track the vernal equinox, has gotten a few days off. In ancient times this was never a problem since Passover was set by actual observations of the Moon and of the vernal equinox. However, after Hillel II standardized the Hebrew calendar in the 4th century, actual observations of celestial events no longer played a part in the determination of the date of Passover. The Gregorian calendar reform of 1582 brought the Western Church back into conformity with astronomical events, hence the discrepancy.

Guide to the Archive and Modern Manuscript Collections
Clicking on one of the collection names below will access a description of that collection.

Aitchison, Leslie. A History of Metals. 2 vols. London, 1960.
Arano, Luisa Cogliati. The Medieval Health Handbook, Tacuinum sanitatis. Translated by Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook. New York, 1976.
Ascherl, Rosemary. "The Technology of Chivalry in Reality and Romances." In The study of Chivalry: Resources and Approaches, edited by Howell Chickering and Thomas Seiler, 263-311. Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1988.

February 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of Linus Pauling's birth. To commemorate the occasion and celebrate this important figure in world history, the OSU Press has published Linus Pauling: Scientist and Peacemaker.
Modeled on centenary books published in honor of Einstein and Bohr, the Pauling Centenary volume includes a wide variety of original material, most of it never before published, from the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers kept at Oregon State University. Short contributions from his contemporaries and students, as well as Pauling's leading biographer, round out the content.

Plus is an internet magazine published five times a year which aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics. Whether you want to know how to build a sundial, how to keep your messages safe or what shape the universe is, it's all here. So take a look at our current issue, explore the archive and browse our careers library to see where maths can take you!

Objectives of the Organization: To make known the work of Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794), the founder of modern chemistry. To circulate information regarding contemporary research on the life and work of Lavoisier. To assemble a complete bibliography on Lavoisier. To find and make known Lavoisier's papers. To create a Lavoisier Forum. To provide support for the Comité Lavoisier of the Académie des Sciences, which is responsible for editing Lavoisier's correspondence.