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University Training of Mathematicians*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2016

S. Chapman
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Extract

Universities have taught in England for about seven centuries, and mathematics has always been one of the subjects taught; but in the earlier centuries it was not part of the undergraduate course. This consisted of three years’ study of Latin grammar, logic, and rhetoric, forming what was called the trivium. Mathematics was part of the M.A. course, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, forming the quadrivium; but this postgraduate status meant less than might seem, because the undergraduates had the position of schoolboys today, and became Bachelors of Arts at ages from fourteen to seventeen. The B.A.s of those days corresponded to the undergraduates of our time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 30 , Issue 289 , May 1946 , pp. 61 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1946

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Footnotes

†

Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, Oxford; Head of the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College, 1924–1946.

*

The address was illustrated by a collection of lantern slides (kindly assembled by Mr. F J. Dyson) showing portraits of mathematicians and title-pages of old mathematical works.

References

‡ In the early part of this address, I have drawn freely on Rouse Ball’s History of Mathematics at Cambridge.