Book, Seven-Place Values of Trigonometric Functions for Every Thousandth of a Degree
date: label: date made
content: 1942
name: label: maker
content: Peters, Johann Theodor
notes: label: Description
content: In the early twentieth century, calculating machines began to replace logarithms as a common tool of those doing computations. Rather than adding and subtracting logarithms of functions to multiply and divide, people entered values of the functions themselves into machines. This encouraged the production and sale of new books of mathematical tables. Some of these were compiled by Johann Theodor Peters (1869-1941) of the astronomical computing institute in Berlin. In 1918, Peters published <I>Siebenstellige Werte der trigonometrischen Funktionen von Tausendstel zu Tausendstel des Grades</I>. It would be reprinted in German in 1930 and 1938. This is the 1942 English edition of the book.
label: Description
content: The volume contains values of trigonometric functions for every thousandth of a degree, to seven places. The first table give sines and cosines, the second tangents and cotangents. Information in the margins assists in interpolating between values in the tables, and the introduction describes how to do this.
label: Description
content: According to the title page, the volume was “published and distributed in the public interest by authority of the alien property custodian under license #A1.” The Alien Property Custodian was an official of the United States Government responsible for assets of enemy powers seized during World War I and again during World War II. This included the copyright to the trigonometric tables of Peters.
label: Description
content: This example of the publication is from the library of the donor, computer pioneer Carl Hammer.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: R.C. Archibald, <I>Mathematical Table Makers</I>, New York: Scripta Mathematica, 1948, pp. 68-71.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Trigonometry
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Carl Hammer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1988.3105.21
label: nonaccession number
content: 1988.3105
label: catalog number
content: 1988.3105.21
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Book
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2.5 cm x 18.4 cm x 24.4 cm; 31/32 in x 7 1/4 in x 9 19/32 in