Club contact: Andrew Grant
andygrantrwg@yahoo.co.uk

March 2026 – update

    A well attended meeting and a talk by Gwilym Roberts

•  “Welsh Mathematicians”

Gwliym Roberts opened his talk with a question:

What is maths?

It requires rational skills and perhaps the mind of a philosopher (such as Bertrand Russell,who had lived in Penrhyndeudraeth.) We were told that it was Pythagoras who first used the term ‘mathematics’.

Every year 14 March is international PI Day (an American idea, as 3.14 when used as a date in USA is 14 March.

This led to the first Welsh Mathematician William Jones who was the first to use the Greek symbol,  π , when calculating the circumference of a circle.

He was good friends with Isaac Newton and possibly helped him in the publications of his books. Jones (1674 – 1749) was born in Llanfachell. Anglesey and spotted as a youth by Lord Bulkley and recommended that Jones be a trainee accountant in London

His career took him to work for the East India Company and then the Royal Navy where in 1702 wrote a navigation book. He was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society and became its Vice President.

By contract with Jones, who had a very humble background, Robert Recorde was from a wealthy family from Tenby where he was born around 1510. He went to Oxford University where he became a fellow of All Souls College.  He was the first to use = instead of using ‘is equal to’. Sadly it was some time before others agreed to that convention, In 1545 he became a doctor in medicine.

He was employed by the Crown (a civil servant !!) and was well acquainted with Sir William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and took him to court regarding fraud. Not a smart move, he lost and was fined £1000 (in 1540 money). Because he could not pay he was sent to debtors prison. Unfortunately it was a time of a plague and he died in prison in 1558, Somewhat belatedly his case was reviewed by Queen Elizabeth I and found the Earl of Pembroke was wrong and Recorde’s family compensated.

Gwilym closed by mentioning three modern day mathematicians, Dr Lyn Jones, Aberdare who helped design and oversaw the development of the Large Hadron Collider, Dr Rhodri Jones, Carmarthen, responsible for the production of particles use in the CERN experiments and Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas, lower Tymbi, a past director of the Cavendish Institute.

Please contact me for any further information at the e-mail address above or on 02920252422.

Although our membership is growing, we still have room for new people and I would be glad to hear from any interested parties. We meet on the second Thursday of each month at the Llanishen Golf Club in Cardiff at 10am for coffee before starting the meeting proper at 10.30am. Lunch is available at the club and the great majority of the members stay for this excellent value meal.

Please note the e-mail address above is not hyperlinked so please enter my address manually.

Andrew Grant (Secretary)