User:Mghgd/sandbox

Article Evaluation

Article: John Napier, maybe related articles like Napier's bones, rabdology, and Promptuary.

• Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
  • The article is mostly on topic, but it misses most of his personal life, as well as all of his early life. There is a section that glosses over 15 years of his life in like 2 lines.
• Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
  • I don't think I know enough right now to say whether information is out of date. I'm sure there has to be information about his early life, and more detail on his accomplishments.
• What else could be improved?
  • Citations are very lacking on his article. Some aren't even cited correctly. On the napier's bones article, there is a single spanish source. pomptuary has one source, and rabdology has no sources.
• Is the article neutral? Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
  • These articles are heavily biased to his work on discovering logarithms, and his religious views.
• Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
  • See above.
• Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
  • Most of the links work. The spanish link in napier's bones didn't work, and generally there just aren't many reliable sources.
• Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
  • The sources pretty much glance over anything about him, just mentioning him in passing.
• How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
  • The article about napier has a couple of wiki projects from medium to high priority and a c class article. the other related articles are mostly stubs or low to medium priority or not parts of any groups.
• How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
  • We haven't talked about him in class.

<Mghgd (talk) 16:52, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

What I chose?

John Napier

Why I chose it?

He has a pretty high significance in several wiki projects, and it sounds like he has a lot of interesting things in his life with very little detail

What to add?

Details about his early life and really anything about him other than logarithms. I'm sure in his 67 year life he managed to do something else, but the Wikipedia article doesn't lead you to believe that. Mghgd (talk) 17:01, 1 March 2019 (UTC)

Edit

copied from John Napier

Many mathematicians at the time were acutely aware of the issues of computation and were dedicated to relieving practitioners of the calculation burden. In particular, the Scottish mathematician John Napier was famous for his devices to assist with computation. He invented a well-known mathematical artifact, the ingenious numbering rods more quaintly known as “Napier's bones,” that offered mechanical means for facilitating computation. (For additional information on “Napier's bones,” see the article, “John Napier: His Life, His Logs, and His Bones” (2006).) (fix this for next time)

In 1572, Napier married 16-year-old Elizabeth, daughter of James Stirling, the 4th Laird of Keir and of Cadder. They had two children. Elizabeth died in 1579, and Napier then married Agnes Chisholm shortly after, with whom he had ten more children. His father-in-law James Chisholm of Cromlix was later mixed up in the Spanish blanks plot, over which Napier with others petitioned the king. Mghgd (talk) 16:50, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Draft

Title Description:

Most of this area just goes over that he invented logarithms, I plan on adding some more about his religious views because those were the primary thing he worked on during the middle part of his life. His book on logarithms was only published 3 years before he died, but he published A plaine discovery 20 years before that and was what he was best known for while he was alive. I think this will add a little bit of depth to him as a person, instead of “he’s just the guy who invented the logarithm”.

Early life:

As was the common practice for members of the nobility at that time, he was privately tutored and did not have formal education until he was 13, when he was sent to St Salvator's College, St Andrews.^[3]

He did not stay in college very long. It is believed that he dropped out of school in Scotland and perhaps travelled in mainland Europe to better continue his studies. Little is known about those years, where, when, or with whom he might have studied, although his uncle Adam Bothwell wrote a letter to John's father on 5 December 1560, saying "I pray you, sir, to send John to the schools either to France or Flanders, for he can learn no good at home", and it is believed that this advice was followed.

replace with:

There are no records of Napier’s early education, but many believe that he was privately tutored during his early childhood. At age 13, he was enrolled in St Salvator's College, St Andrews. Near the time of his matriculation the quality of the education provided by the university was poor in part due to the Reformation causing significant strife between the those of the old faith, and the growing numbers of Protestants. There are no records showing that John Napier completed his education at St Andrews. It is believed he left Scotland to further his education in mainland Europe, following the advice given by his uncle Adam Bothwell in a letter written to John Napier’s father on 5 December 1560, saying, “I pray you, sir, to send John to the schools either to France or Flanders, for he can learn no good at home”. It is not known which university Napier attended in Europe, but when he returned to Scotland in 1571 he was fluent in Greek, a language that was not commonly taught in many European Universities at the time. There are also no records showing his enrollment in the premier universities in Paris or Geneva during this time.

The occult:

In addition to his mathematical and religious interests, Napier was often perceived as a magician, and is thought to have dabbled in alchemy and necromancy. It was said that he would travel about with a black spider in a small box, and that his black rooster was his familiar spirit.^[13][14][15]

Some of Napier's neighbors accused him of being a sorcerer and in league with the devil, believing that all of the time he spent in his study was being used to learn the black art. These rumors were not helped by Napier when he used his black rooster to catch a thief. Napier told his servants to go into a darkened room and pet the rooster, which had been colored black by covering it with soot, claiming that the rooster would crow if they were the one who stole his property. When the servants emerged, Napier inspected their hands to find the servant who was too afraid to touch the rooster.

Another act which Napier is reported to have done, which may have seemed mystical to the locals, was when Napier removed the pigeons from his estate, since they were eating his grain. Napier caught the pigeons by strewing grain laced with alcohol throughout the field, and then capturing the pigeons once they were too drunk to fly away.

A contract still exists for a treasure hunt, made between Napier and Robert Logan of Restalrig. Napier was to search Fast Castle for gold allegedly hidden there, wherein it is stated that Napier should "do his utmost diligence to search and seek out, and by all craft and ingine to find out the same, or make it sure that no such thing has been there."^[6] This contract was never fulfilled by Napier, and no gold was found when the Edinburgh Archaeological Field society excavated the castle in between 1971 and 1986.

A lot more information can be added in the influence section about the usefulness of the logarithm and pushing the adoption of decimal arithmetic. Quote ”The industry and patience of Kepler in this investigation were not less remarkable than his ingenuity and invention. Logarithms were not well known, so that arithmetic computation, when pushed to great accuracy, was carried on at a vast expense of time and labour. In the calculation of every opposition of Mars, the work filled ten folio pages, and Kepler repeated each calculation ten times, so that the whole work for each opposition extended to one hundred such pages; seven oppositions thus calculated produced a large folio volume.” (John Napier: life, logarithms, and legacy, pp 66)

Another Kepler Quote: "When I arrived in Upper Germany in the year 1621, and everywhere discussed Napier’s logarithms with experienced mathematicians, I discovered that those whom age had blessed with sound judgement but whose ready competence it had diminished, were hesitant to accept this class of numbers in place of their accustomed table of sines. They said that it was shameful for a professor of mathematics to get childishly excited over any summary scheme of numbers, and for the time being to agree to use a form of calculation without any proper demonstration, which at some future time might drag you into error when you least expected it. They complained that Napier’s demonstration rested upon the illusion of a certain motion of geometry, whose slippery and changeable nature was no good as a firm basis for reasoned demonstrations. This was why I then immediately devised the initial stages of a proper demonstration, which later, when I returned to Linz, I worked out more carefully, mostly from the beginning of 1622." (The life and works of John Napier, pp 41)

Mghgd (talk) 21:04, 17 March 2019 (UTC)

Improvements

Modern English translations of both Napier's books on logarithms and their description can be found on the web, as well as a discussion of Napier's bones and Promptuary (another early calculating device).

He was the first Protestant writer in English to attempt to date the Second Coming and end of the world and he knew that doing so was controversial. --Life and works PP65

Napier wanted the Plaine Discovery to appeal to the widest audience possible, claiming to have published the work in English, as opposed to Latin, so that, “the fimple of this Iland may be inftructed" --life and works pp65

For example, the idea that the pope was Antichrist was a central feature of Napier’s worldview and the chronology that formed the basis of his commentary --pp65

Napier summarised the Book of Revelation and his interpretation of it in tables and a poem. This made the work highly accessible and they may have been included to win favour with James VI, who frequently patronised poets and wrote a good deal of verse himself. -- life and works pp67

urged James, “to begin at your M. owne houfe, familie and court, and purge the fame of all fufpicion of papifts, and Atheifts or Newtrals” --life and works pp73

Napier's father-in-law, Sir James Chisholm of Cromlix, was one of many excommunicated by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian party following the Spanish blanks plot. Napier sat on the General Assembly that excommunicated the plotters, and petitioned the King James VI and I to enforce the punishment on the plotters, but was ultimately ignored since the King believed the the ministers were acting cruelly, and was in favor of pursuing policies of more appeasement.

from article:

Napier had an interest in the Book of Revelation, from his student days at St Salvator's College, St Andrews. Under the influence of the sermons of Christopher Goodman, he developed a strongly anti-papal reading, going as far as to say that the Pope was the Antichrist in some of his writings.

Napier regarded A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John (1593) as his most important work. It was written in English, unlike his other publications, in order to reach the widest audience and so that, according to Napier, "the simple of this island may be instructed". A Plaine Discovery used mathematical analysis of the Book of Revelation to attempt to predict the date of the Apocalypse. Napier identified events in chronological order which he believed were parallels to events described in the Book of Revelation believing that Revelation's structure implied that the prophecies would be fulfilled incrementally. In this work Napier dated the seventh trumpet to 1541, and predicted the end of the world would occur in either 1688 or 1700. Napier did not believe that people could know the true date of the Apocalypse, but claimed that since the Bible contained so many clues about the end, God wanted the Church to know when the end was coming.

Peer Review of Article Draft Changes ThisIsForHistory (talk) 15:18, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

1. "There are no records showing that John Napier completed his education at St Andrews, and it is believed he left Scotland to further his education in mainland Europe, following the advice given by his uncle Adam Bothwell in a letter written to John Napier’s father on 5 December 1560, saying, “I pray you, sir, to send John to the schools either to France or Flanders, for he can learn no good at home”." This is good information but you should break it up into multiple sentences.
2. This contract was never fulfilled by Napier, and no gold was found when the Edinburgh Archaeological Field society excavated the castle in between 1971 and 1968. Are the dates here correct? If so they should be switched to be chronological.
3. The John Napier article has a lot of sections that need more fleshing out and what you have drafted will help flesh those areas out.
4. John Napier was definitely influential in the field of mathematics and the Influence section needs to be expanded on his page. You have some good quotes from Kepler about how logarithms made math quicker and easier as well as how some mathematicians accepted or rejected the new idea of logarithms. Expanding on these quotes in the Influence section will really help improve that section and the article as a whole.

ThisIsForHistory (talk) 15:38, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

Peer edit by Charles Cooley (talk) 15:46, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

The draft does a good job providing more information related to the background of John Napier. It provides information that is not readily available in the current Wikipedia article and helps to clarify some of the viewpoints that may currently exist that influence peoples perception of Napier and his achievements.

Overall the changes to the article provide what appears to be relevant and interesting background information. However, I would suggest revising the sentence structure in some parts of the draft. Splitting sentences can provide more information and improve the flow of the draft as opposed to using long winded sentences with quotations inside. However, the overall quality of the information is strong and interesting.

The biggest suggested improvement would be finding and providing the relevant citations to support the claims made within the draft. While citations are currently provided at the end of each section of the drafted changes, it does not show how each sentence or claim within the draft is supported. If a single source is being cited it is helpful to provide citations that indicate where in the cited material the claim being made is supported.

Providing background on religious affiliation helps readers to further understand the individual in the Wikipedia article. It may also help explain bias or other issues towards or with the individual in the time period if applicable. This methodology could be applied to other articles and as such is a noteworthy feature of the draft. Charles Cooley (talk) 15:47, 22 March 2019 (UTC)