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To the Vector the Spoils: Visual Aids to Complex Mathematics Problems in Midcentury Electronics Engineering / Ezra J Teboul

To the Vector the Spoils: Visual Aids to Complex Mathematics Problems in Midcentury Electronics Engineering / Ezra J Teboul

To the Vector the Spoils: Visual Aids to Complex Mathematics Problems in Midcentury Electronics Engineering with Ezra J Teboul, Postdoctoral Researcher at Carleton University / Ingenium Museums

10 June at 5:00 pm BST (online - ZOOM)

Abstract

What labor did vector diagrams replace as they became more popular in midcentury western engineering mathematics? In this presentation, I focus on a short debate between D. Connelly and Marcus Scroggie (aka “Cathode Ray”) in two 1964 issues of the British journal Electronics and Power: Scroggie argued that “there must be satisfactory conventions to relate the vector diagram to the circuit diagram” while Connelly thought that “the basic purpose of a vector diagram is to provide a graphical representation of a sinusoid that will be easier to manipulate and will yield a more ready interpretation than the corresponding trigonometric expressions.” (1964, 167). In 1893, mathematical physicists such as C.P. Steinmetz had encouraged the use of complex numbers to “write A.C.”, that is, to conceptualize the interactions of voltage and current in multiphase power transmission lines which were being built around North America in the U.S. and Canada’s massive electrification projects (Siegert 2018, Nye 2001). By midcentury, vectors diagrams were common design and teaching tools, one example of visual-mathematical hybrids developed to assist a growing professional-technical class which managers and teachers did not necessarily see as needing to understand circuitry and mathematical proofs for their underlying theory in fine details, but rather, become capable at problem-solving. By better understanding each of the technical and social problems these hybrids solved not just in circuit-design, but also in professional enrollment processes or knowledge / boundary work generally, we can both make applied mathematics more accessible to humanists, and the development of our electronics technoculture more legible to popular discourse.

Jitsi Meeting Information

I think Zoom will be dead by June, maybe we should try meet.slab.space?

Contact

Jan Vrhovski j.vrhovski@ed.ac.uk