Mathematics for history's sake : a new approach to Ptolemy's Geography
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| Title: | Mathematics for history's sake : a new approach to Ptolemy's Geography |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Mintz, Daniel V. |
| Committee Members: | O'Connor, John J.; Gratwick, Adrian |
| Summary: | Almost two thousand years ago, Claudius Ptolemy created a guide to drawing maps of the world, identifying the names and coordinates of over 8,000 settlements and geographical features. Using the coordinates of those cities and landmarks which have been identified with modern locations, a series of best-fit transformations has been applied to several of Ptolemy’s regional maps, those of Britain, Spain, and Italy. The transformations relate Ptolemy’s coordinates to their modern equivalents by rotation and skewed scaling. These reflect the types of error that appear in Ptolemy’s data, namely those of distance and orientation. The mathematical techniques involved in this process are all modern. However, these techniques have been altered in order to deal with the historical difficulties of Ptolemy’s maps. To think of Ptolemy’s data as similar to that collected from a modern random sampling of a population and to apply unbiased statistical methods to it would be erroneous. Ptolemy’s data is biased, and the nature of that bias is going to be informed by the history of the data. Using such methods as cluster analysis, Procrustes analysis, and multidimensional scaling, we aimed to assess numerically the accuracy of Ptolemy’s maps. We also investigated the nature of the errors in the data and whether or not these could be linked to historical developments in the areas mapped. |
| URL: | http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.552537 |
| Database: | OpenDissertations |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ddu DbLabel: OpenDissertations An: ddu.oai.ethos.bl.uk.552537 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Dissertation/ Thesis PubTypeId: dissertation PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Mathematics for history's sake : a new approach to Ptolemy's Geography – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Mintz%2C+Daniel+V%2E%22">Mintz, Daniel V.</searchLink> – Name: Author Label: Committee Members Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22O'Connor%2C+John+J%2E%22">O'Connor, John J.</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Gratwick%2C+Adrian%22">Gratwick, Adrian</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Summary Group: Ab Data: Almost two thousand years ago, Claudius Ptolemy created a guide to drawing maps of the world, identifying the names and coordinates of over 8,000 settlements and geographical features. Using the coordinates of those cities and landmarks which have been identified with modern locations, a series of best-fit transformations has been applied to several of Ptolemy’s regional maps, those of Britain, Spain, and Italy. The transformations relate Ptolemy’s coordinates to their modern equivalents by rotation and skewed scaling. These reflect the types of error that appear in Ptolemy’s data, namely those of distance and orientation. The mathematical techniques involved in this process are all modern. However, these techniques have been altered in order to deal with the historical difficulties of Ptolemy’s maps. To think of Ptolemy’s data as similar to that collected from a modern random sampling of a population and to apply unbiased statistical methods to it would be erroneous. Ptolemy’s data is biased, and the nature of that bias is going to be informed by the history of the data. Using such methods as cluster analysis, Procrustes analysis, and multidimensional scaling, we aimed to assess numerically the accuracy of Ptolemy’s maps. We also investigated the nature of the errors in the data and whether or not these could be linked to historical developments in the areas mapped. – Name: URL Label: URL Group: URL Data: <link linkTarget="URL" linkTerm="http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.552537" linkWindow="_blank">http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.552537</link> |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ddu&AN=ddu.oai.ethos.bl.uk.552537 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: 519 Type: general – SubjectFull: History of mathematics ; Ptolemy ; Geography ; Historical maps ; G87.P93M5 ; Ptolemy, 2nd cent. Geographia ; Geography, Ancient--Maps ; Cartography--History ; Error analysis (Mathematics) ; Cluster analysis ; Multidimensional scaling Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Mathematics for history's sake : a new approach to Ptolemy's Geography Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Mintz, Daniel V. IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2011 |
| ResultId | 1 |
