Pages

21 October 2009

Homage to Napier



Medium:  Interactive Mixed Media

Size:        64" Wide x 57.75" Tall
                Number Columns 4" x 48" each

Year Completed:  2006

 No Longer Available

John Napier (NAY-peer) (1550-1617) was a Scottish mathematician. He is responsible for the development of Logarithms. He spent twenty years on his theories and in 1614 published them in a book Mirifici Logarithmorum canonis descriptio (A Description of the Wonderful Law of Logarithms).

This piece is based on an abacus, called "Napier's Bones",  that was developed by John Napier.   It was a system for calculating products and quotients of numbers.  It was used until the mid 1800's and is considered a precursor to the calculator & thus the computer.

This is an interactive piece.  Each "stick" comes out and can be moved into any slot to line up the numerals necessary to make up the number you want to multiply or divide.

Instructions for use: Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier

In November, 2008, I taught a MATH / ART workshop to High School students in Tupelo, MS...the Art students did paintings based on "math" or "numbers" & the Math students created this Napier's Bones work of art:

No comments: