From exploration to theory-driven tables (and back again). A History of Tables in Number Theory.

Maarten Bullynck (1)

1 Centre de recherches historiques : histoire des pouvoirs, savoirs et sociétés

The article first discusses the earliest extant instances of such tables in Antiquity, and then moves on to the Modern period, dwelling at some length on the table projects of Guldin, Pell and Lambert. It is shown that the numer theoretical tables have incluenfed the development of theory (and vice versa) and especially Legendre's and Gauss's work around 1800 is analysed in that light. The paper closes with tabular work in the 19th and 20th century, discussing the paper tools and machinery that were used to produce them.

Mots clés: Number theory; numerical tables; Pell; Lambert; Gauss; Legendre; D.H. Lehmer

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Théorie des nombres [math.NT]

Maarten Bullynck. From exploration to theory-driven tables (and back again). A History of Tables in Number Theory.. 2014. ⟨hal-01383821⟩