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MATHEMATICIAN

John Playfair

1748 - 1819

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John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton. It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism, later taken up by Charles Lyell, first reached a wide audience. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of John Playfair has received more than 135,640 page views. His biography is available in 28 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 27 in 2019). John Playfair is the 605th most popular mathematician (down from 461st in 2019), the 2,936th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 2,186th in 2019) and the 65th most popular British Mathematician.

Memorability Metrics

  • 140k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 48.68

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 28

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.68

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.62

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, John Playfair ranks 605 out of 823Before him are Michael Artin, Alfred Pringsheim, Saunders Mac Lane, Jürgen Moser, Jean-Étienne Montucla, and Plato Tiburtinus. After him are Alicia Boole Stott, Ludwig Bieberbach, Giovanni Antonio Amedeo Plana, Jan Śniadecki, Lewis Fry Richardson, and Endre Szemerédi.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1748, John Playfair ranks 23Before him are Dominique, comte de Cassini, Anders Sparrman, Félix Vicq-d'Azyr, Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, Timur Shah Durrani, and Francesco Mario Pagano. After him are Joseph Bramah, Martha Jefferson, John Marshall, Asaf-ud-Daula, Charles Blagden, and William Few. Among people deceased in 1819, John Playfair ranks 23Before him are Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, Bodawpaya, Abbé Faria, Alexander Tormasov, Johan David Åkerblad, and Valentin Vodnik. After him are Oliver Hazard Perry, John Marshall, Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, John Jeffries, Mary Moser, and William Samuel Johnson.

Others Born in 1748

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Others Deceased in 1819

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, John Playfair ranks 2,936 out of 7,765Before him are Divina Galica (1944), Jack Grealish (1995), Constance Markievicz (1868), Dave Legeno (1963), Christopher Cradock (1862), and Ian Wright (1963). After him are Andy Goldsworthy (1956), Rowland Hill (1795), Clare Torry (1947), Princess Louisa of Great Britain (1749), Jimmy Gardner (1924), and Edmund Purdom (1926).

Among MATHEMATICIANS In United Kingdom

Among mathematicians born in United Kingdom, John Playfair ranks 65Before him are Ian Stewart (1945), Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter (1907), William Burnside (1852), Edmund Gunter (1581), John Lennox (1943), and Joseph Raphson (1648). After him are Lewis Fry Richardson (1881), Thomas Digges (1546), James Ivory (1765), Robert Simson (1687), Paul Bernays (1888), and David Gregory (1659).