
John Coulson and Making Mathematics Accessible in the 18th Century
About this episode
In this episode of our Lucasian Professors series, we turn to John Coulson, the fifth holder of the chair. From a schoolmaster to a Fellow of the Royal Society and a tireless translator, Coulson championed practical, accessible mathematics—translating Newton, developing Negativo-Affirmativo arithmetic, and venturing into navigation, mapmaking, and women’s education. Join us as we trace his unconventional path to Cambridge, his enduring contributions to making math comprehensible to a wider audience, and the manuscripts and ideas that hint at a broader, inclusive mathematics in the 18th century.
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