// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's John Colson? A colossally bad name.

The Reverend John Colson FRS
John Colson by John Wollaston
Born	1680
Died	20 January 1760(1760-01-20) (aged 79–80) Cambridge
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Known for	Signed-digit representation
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Cambridge

John Colson FRS (1680 – 20 January 1760) was an English clergyman, mathematician, and the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.

Life

John Colson was educated at Lichfield School before becoming an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, though he did not complete a degree there. He became a schoolmaster at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1713. He was Vicar of Chalk, Kent from 1724 to 1740. He relocated to Cambridge and lectured at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. From 1739 to 1760, he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. He was also Rector of Lockington, Yorkshire.

Works

In 1726 he published his "Negativo-Affirmativo Arithmetik", which advocated a modified decimal system of numeration. He proposed "reduction [to] small figures" by "throwing all the large figures $9,8,7,6$ out of a given number, and introducing in their room the equivalent small figures $1{\bar {1}},1{\bar {2}},1{\bar {3}},1{\bar {4}}$ respectively". This method of signifying numbers is now called signed-digit representation.

John Colson translated several of Isaac Newton's works into English, including De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum in 1736.

See also

• Method of Fluxions
• Witch of Agnesi

References

• Cooper, Thompson (1887). "Colson, John" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 405–406.
• Robert Bruen (2008). "Lucasian Chair: John Colson". Lucasian Chair.org. Cambridge University. Archived from the original on 29 December 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2008.
• "A Brief History of The Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge University" – Robert Bruen, Boston College, May 1995

External links

• Media related to John Colson at Wikimedia Commons