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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Alhazen, Omar Khayyám, Shen Kuo, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Su Song, Abraham Bar Hiyya, Ibn Yunus, Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm Al-Zarqālī, Al-Karaji, Śrīpati, Notker Labeo, Adalbold Ii of Utrecht, Al-Sijzi, Hermann of Reichenau, Abu Nasr Mansur, Kushyar Ibn Labban, Alī Ibn Ahmad Al-Nasawī, Brahmadeva, Yusuf Al-Mu'taman Ibn Hud, Gerland. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Shen Kuo or Shen Gua (Chinese: ; pinyin: Shn Kuò; Wade-Giles: Shen K'uo) (10311095), style name Cunzhong () and pseudonym Mengqi (now usually given as Mengxi) Weng (), was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty (9601279). Excelling in many fields of study and statecraft, he was a mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, zoologist, botanist, pharmacologist, agronomist, archaeologist, ethnographer, cartographer, encyclopedist, general, diplomat, hydraulic engineer, inventor, academy chancellor, finance minister, governmental state inspector, poet, and musician. He was the head official for the Bureau of Astronomy in the Song court, as well as an Assistant Minister of Imperial Hospitality. At court his political allegiance was to the Reformist faction known as the New Policies Group, headed by Chancellor Wang Anshi (10211086). In his Dream Pool Essays (; Mengxi Bitan) of 1088, Shen was the first to describe the magnetic needle compass, which would be used for navigation (first described in Europe by Alexander Neckam in 1187). Shen discovered the concept of true north in terms of magnetic declination towards the north pole, with experimentation of suspended magnetic needles and "the improved meridian determined by Shen's measurement of the distance between the polestar and true north". This was the decisive step in human history to make compasses more useful for nav...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1102000 ... Read more

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Chapters: 11th-Century Mathematicians, Alhazen, Omar Khayyám, Shen Kuo, Abu Rayhan Biruni, Su Song, Abraham Bar Hiyya, Ibn Yunus, Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm Al-Zarqālī, Al-Karaji, Śrīpati, Notker Labeo, Simeon Seth, Adalbold Ii of Utrecht, Al-Sijzi, Hermann of Reichenau, Abu Nasr Mansur, Kushyar Ibn Labban, Alī Ibn Ahmad Al-Nasawī, Brahmadeva, Yusuf Al-Mu'taman Ibn Hud, Gerland. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 188. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Shen Kuo or Shen Gua (Chinese: ; pinyin: Shn Kuò; Wade-Giles: Shen K'uo) (10311095), style name Cunzhong () and pseudonym Mengqi (now usually given as Mengxi) Weng (), was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty (9601279). Excelling in many fields of study and statecraft, he was a mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, zoologist, botanist, pharmacologist, agronomist, archaeologist, ethnographer, cartographer, encyclopedist, general, diplomat, hydraulic engineer, inventor, academy chancellor, finance minister, governmental state inspector, poet, and musician. He was the head official for the Bureau of Astronomy in the Song court, as well as an Assistant Minister of Imperial Hospitality. At court his political allegiance was to the Reformist faction known as the New Policies Group, headed by Chancellor Wang Anshi (10211086). In his Dream Pool Essays (; Mengxi Bitan) of 1088, Shen was the first to describe the magnetic needle compass, which would be used for navigation (first described in Europe by Alexander Neckam in 1187). Shen discovered the concept of true north in terms of magnetic declination towards the north pole, with experimentation of suspended magnetic needles and "the improved meridian determined by Shen's measurement of the distance between the polestar and true north". This was the decisive step...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1102000 ... Read more