The Emergence of Symbolic Notation and Data Visualization in Algebra and Chemistry

代数和化学中符号表示法和数据可视化的出现

• 批准号: 1754788
• 负责人: Pamela Smith
• 金额: $ 1.57万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-02-01 至 2020-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754788&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Emergence; Symbolic; Notation; Data; Visualization

This award supports doctoral dissertation research in history of science that focuses on the use of mathematical and chemical symbolism. Such notation is currently regarded as essential to scientific work. By contrast, for much of Western European history, the use of symbols in science was not regarded as a suitable approach. However, by the nineteenth century, symbolic notation had become ubiquitous. This project's objective is to explain why European scientists came to see symbolic notation as credible during the early modern period. To identify when and how scientists used symbolic notations, the researcher will study scientific manuscripts, where the exigencies of publishing did not constrain the use of symbols. These include mathematicians' and chemists' notebooks, apothecaries' inventories, doctors' records, and manuscript textbooks, all of which are unique and un-digitized. The results of this project will shape how symbolic notation and visual thinking are understood by historians of science and more broadly. They will show the limits of historical methodologies that invest too heavily in a distinction between language and image; symbolic notations were powerful precisely because they blurred the line between these two domains. More broadly, they will show how effective design can be improved through consideration of visual objects that are not admitted under a strict definition of data visualization. Finally, they will be disseminated to secondary students through lesson plans and classroom tools created by the researcher, a former high school instructor, to provide another means by which teachers can provoke interest in STEM fields, and to show students that the union of the sciences and humanities can lead to productive thinking.By examining how symbolic notations came to be seen as credible during the early modern period, this project presents a deeper historical understanding of how "visual thinking" and data visualization developed. Today, diagrams, drawings, charts, and pictures are indispensable tools for displaying data and identifying patterns within that data. However, the ancient and medieval methods of scientific reasoning that early modern scientists inherited were fundamentally verbal, and some scientific traditions distrusted images altogether. The epistemological validity of visual thinking therefore had to be proved. This project posits that symbolic notations played a crucial role in that process during the early modern period. Because symbolic notations could be seen as either linguistic or pictorial, they gave scientists a way of experimenting with visual thinking while still being able to characterize it as verbal thinking. Symbolic notations, in other words, served as a conduit through which the validity of visual proof could be established by means of an appeal to verbal proof. Moreover, it is argued that, over time, as scientists became accustomed to the advantages of visual thinking afforded by symbolic notations, they became bolder in their experiments with other visual tools like diagrams, charts, and graphs. This project thus demonstrates an underappreciated legacy of the Scientific Revolution: namely, that the legitimization of visual thinking in science was predicated upon the development and application of symbolic notations.

该奖项支持专注于使用数学和化学象征意义的科学史上的博士学位论文研究。目前，这种符号对科学工作至关重要。相比之下，对于西欧历史的许多历史，在科学中使用符号并不被视为一种合适的方法。但是，到19世纪，象征性符号已无处不在。该项目的目标是解释为什么欧洲科学家认为象征性符号在现代初期是可信的。为了确定科学家何时以及如何使用符号符号，研究人员将研究科学手稿，在这种手稿中，出版的紧急情况并没有限制符号的使用。其中包括数学家和化学家的笔记本，院子的库存，医生的记录和手稿教科书，所有这些都是独特而没有数字的。该项目的结果将影响科学史学家以及更广泛地理解象征性符号和视觉思维。他们将展示历史方法论的局限性，这些方法论在语言和形象之间的区别上太大了。符号表示法之所以强大，恰恰是因为它们模糊了这两个域之间的界限。更广泛地说，它们将通过考虑在严格的数据可视化定义下未接收的视觉对象来展示如何改进有效的设计。最后，通过课程计划和课堂工具，研究人员是前高中教练创建的另一种手段，以使教师可以引起对STEM领域的兴趣，并向学生表明，科学和人文学科的结合可以导致象征性的象征性的现代化期间的象征性，该项目是如何将录像录制到了，他们将如何看待型号，从而使人们了解如何，他们将如何看待型号，从而使人们了解如何，他们的历史录制了，他们将如何看待象征，从而使人们了解如何，他们将如何看待，从而使人们了解如何，因此，他们的历史录制了如何，将如何了解象征，从而使人们了解如何，他们将如何了解象征，从而使人们对象征性的了解如何，从而，他们将如何探讨，这些方法是如何，他们会探讨如何，从而使他们探索了如何了解，从而，他们将录制出来，从而使他们探索了如何，因此，将录像范围录制到了如何了解，他们是如何探讨的。如今，图表，图纸，图表和图片是用于显示数据和识别该数据中模式的必不可少的工具。然而，早期现代科学家继承的古老和中世纪的科学推理方法从根本上讲是口头的，一些科学传统完全使图像完全不信任。因此，必须证明视觉思维的认识论有效性。该项目认为，符号符号在近代早期的过程中起着至关重要的作用。由于符号符号可以看作是语言或图片，因此他们为科学家提供了一种尝试视觉思维的方式，同时仍然能够将其描述为言语思维。换句话说，符号符号是一个导管，可以通过呼吁言语证明来确定视觉证明的有效性。此外，有人认为，随着时间的流逝，随着科学家的习惯，符号符号所提供的视觉思维的优势，他们在使用其他视觉工具（例如图表，图表和图形）的实验中变得更加大胆。因此，该项目表明了科学革命的遗产不足：即，科学中视觉思维的合法化是基于符号符号的发展和应用。