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See also:PLAYFAIR, See also:JOHN (1748-1819) , Scottish mathematician and physicist, was See also:born at Benvie, See also:Forfarshire, where his See also:father was See also:parish See also:minister, on the Toth of See also:March 1748. He was educated at See also:home until the See also:age of fourteen, when he entered the university of St See also:Andrews. In 1766, when only eighteen, he was See also:candidate for the See also:chair of See also:mathematics in Marischal See also:College, See also:Aberdeen, and, although he was unsuccessful, his claims were admitted to be high. Six years later he made application for the chair of natural See also:philosophy in his own university, but again without success, and in 1773 he was offered and accepted the living of the See also:united parishes of Liff and Benvie, vacant by the See also:death of his father. He continued, however, to carry Qn his mathematical and See also:physical studies, and in 1782 he resigned his See also:charge in See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order to become the See also:tutor of See also:Ferguson of Raith. By this arrangement he was able to be frequently in See also:Edinburgh, and to cultivate the See also:literary and scientific society for which it was at that See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time specially distinguished; and through See also:Maskelyne, whose acquaintance he had first made in the course of the celebrated Schiehallion experiments in 1774, he also gained See also:access to the scientific circles of See also:London. In 1785 when Dugald See also:- STEWART, ALEXANDER TURNEY (1803-1876)
- STEWART, BALFOUR (1828-1887)
- STEWART, CHARLES (1778–1869)
- STEWART, DUGALD (1753-1828)
- STEWART, J
- STEWART, JOHN (1749—1822)
- STEWART, JULIUS L
- STEWART, SIR DONALD MARTIN (1824–19o0)
- STEWART, SIR HERBERT (1843—1885)
- STEWART, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1540—c. 1605)
- STEWART, STUART
- STEWART, WILLIAM (c. 1480-c. 1550)
Stewart succeeded Ferguson in the Edinburgh chair of moral philosophy, Playfair succeeded the former in that of mathematics. In 1802 he published his celebrated See also:volume entitled Illustrations of the Fluttonian Theory of the See also:Earth. To its publication the See also:influence exerted by See also:- JAMES
- JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
- JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
- JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
- JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
- JAMES, EPISTLE OF
- JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
- JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
- JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
- JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
- JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)
James See also:Hutton on the progress of See also:geological knowledge is largely due. In 18o5 he exchanged the chair of mathematics for that of natural philosophy in See also:succession to Dr John Robison, whom also he succeeded as See also:general secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He took a prominent See also:part, on the Liberal See also:side, in the ecclesiastical controversy which arose in connexion with See also:Leslie's See also:appointment to the See also:post he had vacated, and published a satirical See also:Letter (18o6) which was greatly admired by his See also:friends.
He was elected F.R.S. in. 1807. He died in Edinburgh on the loth of See also:July 1819.
A collected edition of Playfair's See also:works, with a memoir by James G. Playfair, appeared at Edinburgh in 4 vols. 8vo. His writings include a number of essays contributed to the Edinburgh See also:Review from 1804 onwards, various papers in the Phil. Trans. (including his earliest publication, " On the See also:Arithmetic of Impossible Quantities," 1779, and an " See also:Account of the Lithological Survey of Schehallion," 1811) and in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (" On the Causes which affect the Accuracy of Barometrical Measurements," &c.), also the articles "See also:Aepinus" and "Physical See also:Astronomy," and a "Dissertation on the Progress of Mathematical and Physical See also:Science since the Revival of Learning in See also:Europe," in the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica (Supplement to See also:fourth, fifth and See also:sixth See also:editions). His Elements of See also:Geometry first appeared in 1795 and have passed through many editions; his Outlines of Natural Philosophy (2 vols., 1812-1816) consist of the propositions and formulae which were the basis of his class lectures. Playfair's contributions to pure mathematics were not considerable, his See also:paper " On the Arithmetic of Impossible Quantities," that " On the Causes which affect the Accuracy of Barometrical Measurements," and his Elements of Geometry, all already referred to, being the most important. His lives ofMatthew Stewart, Hutton, Robison, many of his reviews, and above all his " Dissertation ' are of the utmost value.
End of Article: PLAYFAIR, JOHN (1748-1819)
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