http://www.metafilter.com/tags/geekdom Posts tagged with 'geekdom' at MetaFilter. Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:05:19 -0800 Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:05:19 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/47659/noe%2D2%2Dthynges%2Dcan%2Dbe%2Dmoare%2Dequalle <a href="http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/robertrecorde"><i>"To avoide the tediouse repetition of these woordes: is equalle to:</i></a> <i>I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or gemowe lines of one lengthe: ======, bicause noe .2. thynges, can be moare equalle."</i> Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde (1510–1558) invented the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/ance-equals.html">equals sign</a> in his 1557 work <i>The <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Bookpages/Recorde4.jpeg">Whetstone</a> of <a href="http://nsm1.nsm.iup.edu/gsstoudt/history/images/witte.html">Witte</a></i>, which also introduced <a href="http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-zen1.htm">"Zenzizenzizenzic"</a>, the eighth power of a number. Recorde had advocated the + and – symbols in his 1540 work <i>The Grounde of Artes</i>. He died in debtor's prison in 1558. Read, watch, or listen to a <a href="http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=382">recent lecture</a> that links the equals sign to developments in art, navigation, and astronomy. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Recorde">Wikipedia</a>) tag:metafilter.com,2005:site.47659 Fri, 16 Dec 2005 10:05:19 -0800 equals geekdom history mathematics goatdog