Abstract
IT is refreshing to come across a set of mathematical tables that are original in construction and use. Thus all that need be said of Mr. Castle's tables (i) is that they seem to contain what the usual student requires, including hyperbolic logarithms, and exponential and hyperbolic functions. But Prof. Bryan's tables (2) afford us the pleasure of novelty. They are original in practically every possible way, and do not look like any other four-figure tables. In Prof. Bryan's tables the squares of numbers up to 1000 are given accurately, a really useful innovation. But it is as regards logarithms that Prof. Bryan achieves his most notable lapse from orthodoxy. Ordinary tables give logarithms and antilogarithms, with the tacit assumption that in reality logarithms are the quantities required, while the antilogarithms are a sop to the lazy student. Many of us who were brought up on seven-figure tables scarcely realised that antilogarithms were ever printed. Prof. Bryan now reverses the scales. He gives primarily only antilogarithms (five figures up to 0-6 and then four figures up to i). By bordering the tables with the terms antilogarithms and antilogarithms of reciprocals in opposite senses, he produces a compact set of figures which give logarithms and cologarithms, i.e. logarithms of reciprocals.
(1) Four-figure Mathematical Tables.
By Frank Castle. Pp. 48. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 1s.
(2) Mathematical Tables.
By Prof. G. H. Bryan. Pp. 27. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 3s. 6d.
(3) Tables logarithmiques à treize décimales.
Par Prof. H. Andoyer. Pp. x+27. (Paris: J. Hermann, 1923.) 8 francs.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
B., S. (1) Four-figure Mathematical Tables (2) Mathematical Tables (3) Tables logarithmiques à treize décimales. Nature 113, 637 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113637a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113637a0