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If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Some of his assets were sold and his name was struck from the roll of privy councillors but he did not have to forfeit Shirburn which remains in the Macclesfield family to this day.
Some dignity was restored when in he was one of the pallbearers at Newton's funeral. Thomas's son, George Parker, became an MP for Wallingford in and spent much of his time at Shirburn where, with Jones's guidance, he added to the library and archive that Jones had brought with him.
George Parker developed an interest in astronomy and with the help of a friend, the astronomer James Bradley who became the third Astronomer Royal in on the death of Halley , he built an astronomical observatory at Shirburn. Among the many influential mathematicians, astronomers and natural philosophers he corresponded with was Roger Cotes , the first Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge and considered by many to be the most talented British mathematician of his generation after Newton.
He had been entrusted with the revisions for the publication of the second edition of Newton's Principia. Jones acted as a conduit between Newton and Cotes when relations between the two became strained. He clearly had influence and considerable tact. In one letter Cotes wrote to Jones: 'I must beg your assistance and management in an affair, which I cannot so properly undertake myself This was the delicate matter of suggesting to Newton an improvement in one of his methods.
Newton had a difficult personality and had to be handled carefully. This Jones was able to do. The second, amended edition of Principia was published in to great acclaim.
Newton was a towering eminence over most of the period and many among the scientific community lived under his shadow. Jones also had an extensive correspondence with the astronomer and mathematician, John Machin c. He was also on the Society's committee to investigate the invention of calculus. Professor of astronomy at Gresham College for nearly 40 years, Machin worked on lunar theory and considered himself an expert on the subject.
In one letter to Jones, Machin used fanciful language to complain about Newton's lunar theory:. Though Machin did not receive the reward, his lunar theory as described in Laws of the moon's motion according to gravity was appended to the English edition of Principia after Newton's death. Machin had also worked on a series for the ratio of the circumference to the diameter which converged fairly rapidly.
The result of his calculation was printed in Jones's book, 'true to above a places; as computed by the accurate and ready pen of the truly ingenious Mr John Machin Jones also had correspondents abroad; one of particular interest was the Quaker scholar James Logan who lived in America.
Logan had been born in Ireland and was invited by William Penn, the Quaker leader and founder of Pennsylvania, to be his secretary. He prospered there and eventually bought a plantation, Stenton, where he retired in his early fifties to pursue his interests, including mathematics and botany. His own library of over 30, books was one of the most outstanding of the 18th century in America and was bequeathed to the city of Philadelphia.
In Logan wrote to Jones about an invention by, 'a young man here This was Thomas Godfrey , a glazier, who in October had invented an instrument that could be accurately used at sea because it had a single half-mirrored sight that lined up a reflected image of the sun with the horizon.
Alternatively any two astronomical objects, for instance, the moon and a star could be lined up by moving a rotatable arm containing the mirror and reading off the angle from the scale.
This meant that movement of a ship would not interfere with the angular measurement as both object and image would move together. It was an ingenious instrument. He later sailed to the West Indies, an experience that began his interest in navigation. When he reached the age of 20, Jones was appointed to a post on a warship to give lessons in mathematics to the crew.
On the back of that experience, he published his first book in on the mathematics of navigation as a practical guide for sailing. On his return to Britain he began to teach mathematics in London, possibly starting by holding classes in coffee shops for a small fee. Shortly afterwards he published Synopsis palmariorum matheseos , a book written in English, despite the Latin title. He later lived at the family home, Shirburn Castle, near Oxford, where he developed close links with the family. Through his numerous connections William Jones amassed at Shirburn an incomparable library of books on science and mathematics.
He also maintained links with Wales, particularly through the Morrises of Anglesey, a family of literary brothers renowned for their cultural influences and activities who, although a generation younger than William, came from the same part of Anglesey and had strong London-based connections. The ancient Babylonians took the value of Pi to be not three but 3.
Archimedes of Syracuse BC was the first mathematician to give the theoretical text for pi with the number very close to the actual value of pi. So much so that some time pi is referred to as Archimedes constant. He drew a polygon on the inside and on the outside of a circle and realised that the sides of the polygon were totalling to almost the circumference of the circle. Such that if he keeps on increasing the sides of the polygon he will almost reach the circle.
Through this he ended up with a polygon of 96 sides approximately close to the circumference of the circle. Ptolemy BC, years ago got the value of pi as 3.
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