Benjamin Franklin

Quick Info

Born

17 January 1706
Boston, Massachusetts, British colony

Died

17 April 1790
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

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Summary

Benjamin Franklin was an American scientist and diplomat. His mathematical interests included magic squares.

Biography

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, but spent most of his life in Philadelphia (punctuated by residences in London and Passy, France). His formal education lasted less than two years, and so he was mainly self-educated, aided by the convenient access to books provided by an apprenticeship in the printing business.

Franklin is best known in the popular imagination for his nonscientific pursuits: printer, American revolutionary, ambassador, to mention only a few roles he played. His scientific reputation rests mainly on his accomplishments as an inventor and as a pioneering theorist in the physics of electricity, but his interests were also mathematical. His version of magic square - a variant now termed the Franklin magic square - was inspired by the work of Stifel and Frénicle, both of whose magic squares were of a more traditional variety. He also drew magic circles.

His first published magic square and his only published magic circle appeared in a 1767 book which also included unrelated excerpts from work by Thomas Simpson. Two years later, Franklin published this square:

52	61	4	13	20	29	36	45
14	3	62	51	46	35	30	19
53	60	5	12	21	28	37	44
11	6	59	54	43	38	27	22
55	58	7	10	23	26	39	42
9	8	57	56	41	40	25	24
50	63	2	15	18	31	34	47
16	1	64	49	48	33	32	17

Aside from the row and column sums being constant, this square also has many other "magical" properties. Further examples of Franklin's magic squares would not be published until two centuries after his death, and doubtless many more were lost. Those which do survive are quite impressive.

Franklin enjoyed close personal and professional relationships with quite a few of the important thinkers of his day, such as Hume, Priestley, Lavoisier and Condorcet. He was a member of the learned societies of many nations. Among these were the Royal Society, which awarded him its prestigious Copley medal for his work in electricity, and the American Philosophical Society, of which he was a founder. He received several honorary degrees, including a doctorate from St. Andrews.

References (show)

1. I B Cohen, Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Franklin
2. Obituary in The Times
   See THIS LINK
3. P C Pasles, The Lost Squares of Dr. Franklin, American Mathematical Monthly 108 (2001), 489-511.

Additional Resources (show)

Other pages about Benjamin Franklin:

1. Times obituary
2. An entry in The Mathematical Gazetteer of the British Isles,
3. Another entry in The Mathematical Gazetteer,
4. Miller's postage stamps

Other websites about Benjamin Franklin:

1. Kevin Brown
2. J Allen
3. Paul C Pasles
4. NNDB

Honours (show)

Honours awarded to Benjamin Franklin

1. Royal Society Copley Medal 1753
2. Fellow of the Royal Society 1756
3. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783
4. Lunar features Crater Franklin
5. Paris Street names Rue Benjamin Franklin (16th Arrondissement)

Cross-references (show)

1. Other: 1950 ICM - Cambridge USA
2. Other: Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics (M)
3. Other: Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
4. Other: Jeff Miller's postage stamps
5. Other: London Learned Societies
6. Other: London individuals D-G
7. Other: Oxford Institutions and Colleges

Written by Paul C Pasles, Villanova University,USA.
Last Update June 2001