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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Paper, 'Supplementary note on the values of the Napierian logarithms of 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10, and of the Modulus of common logarithms' by John Couch Adams

Reference number: PP/10/5

Date: 1886

Description

Adams writes: 'In vol. 27 of the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ pp. 88—94, I have given the values of the logarithms referred to, and of the Modulus, all carried to 260 places of decimals. These logarithms were derived from the five quantities a, b, c, d, e,which were calculated independently [...] the values found for a, b, c, d, e satisfied [the] equation to 263 places of decimals.Although this proved that the values of the logarithms found in the above paper had been determined with a greater degree of accuracy than was there claimed for them, yet I was not entirely satisfied with the result, since the calculation of the fundamental quantities had been carried to 269 places of decimals, and therefore the [...] equation of condition showed that some errors, which I had not succeeded in tracing, had crept into the calculations so as to vitiate the results beyond the 263rd place of decimals.'

Annotations in pencil and ink throughout.

Subject: Mathematics

Received 30 December 1886. Read 13 January 1887.

A version of this paper was published in volume 42 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Supplementary note on the values of the Napierian logarithms of 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10, and of the Modulus of common logarithms'.

Reference number
PP/10/5
Earliest possible date
1886
Physical description
Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Page extent
3 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

John Couch Adams

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Citation

John Couch Adams, Paper, 'Supplementary note on the values of the Napierian logarithms of 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10, and of the Modulus of common logarithms' by John Couch Adams, 1886, PP/10/5, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/pp_10_5/paper-supplementary-note-on-the-values-of-the-napierian-logarithms-of-2-3-5-7-and-10-and-of-the-modulus-of-common-logarithms-by-john-couch-adams, accessed on 19 March 2025

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    The archival collection known as 'Proceedings Papers' is comprised of manuscripts and occasional proofs of scientific papers sent to the Royal Society which were read before meetings of Fellows and printed in full in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

    Dates: 1882 - 1894

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