Editing Abraham Sharp

{{Short description|English mathematician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Abraham Sharp
| image             = Sharp Abraham.jpg
| birth_date        = c. 1653
| birth_place       = [[Little Horton]], [[Bradford]], [[Kingdom of England]]
| death_date        = 18 July 1742
| death_place       = Little Horton, Bradford, [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]
| nationality       = [[English people|English]]
}}

'''Abraham Sharp''' (c. 1653 – 18 July 1742) was an English mathematician and astronomer.

==Life==
Sharp was born in Horton Hall in [[Little Horton]], [[Bradford]], the son of well-to-do merchant John Sharp and Mary (née Clarkson) Sharp and was educated at [[Bradford Grammar School]].<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Sharp.html| title= Abraham Sharp| accessdate= 2011-03-14| archive-date= 9 November 2019| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191109152242/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Sharp.html| url-status= dead}}</ref>

[[File:Abraham Sharp Wooden Telescope YORYM 2012 106.jpg|thumb|Abraham Sharp's wooden telescope]]
In 1669 he became a merchant's apprentice before becoming a schoolmaster in [[Liverpool]] and subsequently a bookkeeper in [[London]]. His wide knowledge of [[mathematics]] and [[astronomy]] attracted [[John Flamsteed|Flamsteed's]] attention and it was through Flamsteed that Sharp was invited, in 1688, to enter the [[Greenwich Royal Observatory]]. There he did notable work, improving instruments and showing great skill as a calculator, publishing ''Geometry Improved'' and [[Logarithm#Tables of logarithms|logarithmic tables]].

Sharp calculated [[pi]] to 72 decimal places using an [[arctan]] sequence, briefly holding the record until [[John Machin]] calculated 100 digits in 1706.<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Pi |last=Beckmann |first=Petr |year=1971 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0-312-38185-9 |page=102}}</ref>

He returned to Little Horton in 1694. When the [[Atlas Coelestis]] – the largest star map at the time – was published,<ref name="LHL">{{cite web|url=http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/stars/fla.htm |title=Flamsteed, John. Atlas coelestis. London, 1729. |editor=Linda Hall Library |accessdate=2011-05-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927134134/http://www.lhl.lib.mo.us/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/stars/fla.htm |archivedate=2011-09-27 }}</ref> it contained 26 maps of the major [[constellation]]s visible from [[Greenwich]], and two [[planisphere]]s designed by Sharp.<ref name="Neri">{{cite web|url=http://www.bo.astro.it/~biblio/atlas/flams-in.htm|title=John Flamsteed, Atlas coelestis|author=Davide Neri|accessdate=2011-05-08}}</ref>

Sharp died in Little Horton in 1742. He had never married. He was a great-uncle of [[Jesse Ramsden]], the scientific instrument maker.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Abraham Sharp's Universal Instrument | author = Melmore, S. | journal = The Observatory | volume = 61 | pages = 248&ndash;250 | year = 1938 | bibcode = 1938Obs....61..248M}}</ref>

An English translation of a memorial tablet in Latin in [[Bradford Cathedral]] carved by [[Peter Scheemakers]]<ref>Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis</ref> translates as " ''He was rightly counted among the most accomplished mathematicians of his day. He enjoyed constant friendship with the very famous men of the same repute, notably Flamsteed and the illustrious Newton. He drew up the description of the heavens made by the former of these (Flamsteed) in (astronomical) tables of the greatest accuracy; he also published anonymously various writings and descriptions of instruments perfected by himself...'' .

The crater [[Sharp (crater)|Sharp]] on the [[Moon]] is named after him.

== References ==
<references />

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book | author = Cudworth, William | title = Life and Correspondence of Abraham Sharp | year = 1889 | publisher = Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Livington, Ltd. | location = London | url = https://archive.org/details/lifeandcorrespo00cudwgoog| quote = abraham sharp. }}
* {{cite journal | title = Abraham Sharp, 1653-1742 | author = Connor, Elizabeth | journal = Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific | volume = 54 | year = 1942 | issue = 321 | pages = 237&ndash;243 | bibcode = 1942PASP...54..237C | doi = 10.1086/125455| doi-access = free }}

==External links==
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Sharp.html Brief biography of Sharp] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109152242/http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Sharp.html |date=9 November 2019 }}
* [http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/sharp.html Abraham Sharp's Polyhedra]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Abraham}}
[[Category:1650s births]]
[[Category:1742 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Bradford]]
[[Category:17th-century English mathematicians]]
[[Category:18th-century English mathematicians]]
[[Category:People educated at Bradford Grammar School]]