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John Playfair
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OverviewAI-generated
John Playfair (1748–1819) was a British mathematician, geologist, physicist, and naturalist. Born in Dundee and educated at the University of St Andrews, he worked as a professor and parson. He was employed by the University of Edinburgh and Adam Ferguson. Playfair was influenced by James Hutton and taught John Leslie. He was a member of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, receiving fellowships in both institutions.
His notable works include *New lights!!*, *Dissertation second*, *Elements of geometry*, *The element of geometry*, and *Elements of geometry: containing the first six books of Euclid*. He wrote in English and is described by sources such as the *Nordisk familjebok*, *The Nuttall Encyclopædia*, and the *Encyclopædia Britannica* 11th edition. Playfair died in Burntisland. He had a sibling named William Playfair.
Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1748
- Died
- 1819
- Works
- 35
Top works
- Elements of plane geometry according to Euclid
- New lights!!
- Dissertation second
- Elements of geometry
- The element of geometry
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
· 1996 · cited 204,183x
- Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
· 2021 · cited 43,461x
- Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,858x
- Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment
· 2007 · cited 35,491x
- The MOS 36-ltem Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36)
· 1992 · cited 29,110x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “The observations on which the astronomy of India is founded, were made more than three thousand years before the Christian era. (…) Two other elements of this astronomy, the equation of the sun’s centre and the obliquity of the ecliptic (…) seem to point to a period still more remote, and to fix the origin of this astronomy 1000 or 1200 years earlier, that is, 4300 years before the Christian era.”
- “That observations made in India, when all Europe was barbarous or uninhabited, and investigations into the most subtle effects of gravitation made in Europe, near five thousand years afterwards, should thus come in mutual support of one another, is perhaps the most striking example of the progress and vicissitudes of science, which the history of mankind has yet exhibited. (179 0:160)”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1748-03-10 ) 10 March 1748 , Benvie, Forfarshire , Scotland
- Died
- 20 July 1819 (1819-07-20) (aged 71), Burntisland, Fife , Scotland
- Resting place
- Old Calton Burial Ground
- Alma mater
- University of St Andrews University of Edinburgh
- Known for
- Playfair's axiom Playfair's law Playfair (lunar crater) Playfair (Martian crater) playfairite
- Fields
- Mathematics , natural philosophy , geology
- Institutions
- University of Edinburgh
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- John
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Place of birth
- Dundee
- Place of death
- Burntisland
- Sibling
- William Playfair
- Occupation
- physicist
- Position held
- parson
- Employer
- Adam Ferguson
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Notable work
- Playfair's axiom
- Doctoral student
- John Leslie
- Field of work
- mathematics
- Image
- John Playfair. Stipple engraving by J. Thomson, 1819. Wellcome V0004707.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- member of
- Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Commons category
- John Playfair
- date of birth
- 1748-03-10
- date of death
- 1819-07-20
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- influenced by
- James Hutton
- student
- John Leslie
- writing language
- English language
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Encyclopedic overview
John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism, later taken up by Charles Lyell, first reached a wide audience. Playfair's textbook Elements of Geometry made a brief expression of Euclid's parallel postulate known now as Playfair's axiom.
In 1783 he was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He served as General Secretary to the society 1798–1819.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “John Playfair” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.