Mathematical and Astronomical Tables: For the Use of Students of Mathematics, Practical Astronomers, Surveyors, Engineers, and Navigators, With an Introduction, Containing the Explanation and Use of the Tables, Illustrated by Numerous Problems and Examples

Excerpt from Mathematical and Astronomical Tables: For the Use of Students of Mathematics, Practical Astronomers, Surveyors, Engineers, and Navigators, With an Introduction, Containing the Explanation and Use of the Tables, Illustrated by Numerous Problems and Examples

The application of the mathematical sciences to practical purposes has of late made great advances in accuracy and precision. The perfection also which astronomical and geodetical operations have reached, and the extreme delicacy of construction to which instruments have been carried, require correspondent improvements in the methods of computation and reduction; and, therefore, convenient tables of moderate expense must be of great value to those engaged either in the details of practice, or the business of instruction.

There are two classes of tables chiefly in use; one either large and expensive, or attached to expensive works, and which therefore can with difficulty be procured by the generality of purchasers; the other so limited and defective as to be totally unfit for constant reference. It has been my study to hold a middle course between these two extremes. By making such additions to the usual tables as to render their application more easy, without greatly increasing their bulk; by selecting the most useful from larger collections; by supplying some new tables, and simplifying the practical rules, several very laborious processes have been rendered more simple and precise, while the requisite accuracy for the nicest purposes has been strictly preserved.

In most of our initiatory works for popular instruction, the processes and examples are unfortunately conducted in such a manner as to be comparatively of little advantage in actual practice, and, consequently, what has been learned in youth, must, in a great degree, be forgotten in manhood, while new methods are then to be acquired.

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