<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Our aim is to explore the links between standardisation, the quantifying spirit, and the discipline mathematics. To do so, we consider the work of Gauss, renowned as a pure mathematician, but professionally an astronomer, and one heavily engaged with all kinds of measuring and precision initiatives. He contributed to the mathematical correction of data with the method of least squares; to observations of high precision in his geodetic work; to the introduction of absolute measures in his collaborations with Weber on terrestrial magnetism; and to the rationalisation of weights and measures in the state of Hannover. Ultimately, the question is to what extent such precision and standardisation activities may have been rooted in the mathematical way of thinking. Mathematics in our tradition has had a strong contemplative bias (theory, <italic>theorein</italic> in Greek means to contemplate), but it’s a fact that mathematics has always had a non-eliminable technical side.</p>
</abstract>

Our aim is to explore the links between standardisation, the quantifying spirit, and the discipline mathematics. To do so, we consider the work of Gauss, renowned as a pure mathematician, but professionally an astronomer, and one heavily engaged with all kinds of measuring and precision initiatives. He contributed to the mathematical correction of data with the method of least squares; to observations of high precision in his geodetic work; to the introduction of absolute measures in his collaborations with Weber on terrestrial magnetism; and to the rationalisation of weights and measures in the state of Hannover. Ultimately, the question is to what extent such precision and standardisation activities may have been rooted in the mathematical way of thinking. Mathematics in our tradition has had a strong contemplative bias (theory, theorein in Greek means to contemplate), but it’s a fact that mathematics has always had a non-eliminable technical side.

Gauss and the Mathematical Background to Standardisation

IMUS and Departamento de Filosofía y Lógica

HoST - Journal  of History of Science and Technology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Gauss and the Mathematical Background to Standardisation"}

Our aim is to explore the links between standardisation, the quantifying spirit, and the discipline mathematics. To do so, we consider the work of Gauss,...

Gauss and the Mathematical Background to Standardisation

Published Online: Jun 25, 2020

Page range: 32 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/host-2020-0003

Keywords
Mathematics as art, technique, quantification, precision measurement, absolute measures

© 2020 José Ferreirós, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Gauss and the Mathematical Background to Standardisation

Published Online: Jun 25, 2020

Page range: 32 - 51

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/host-2020-0003

KeywordsMathematics as art, technique, quantification, precision measurement, absolute measures

© 2020 José Ferreirós, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Mathematics as art, technique, quantification, precision measurement, absolute measures