	Site Map \| FAQ in Daily Almanac for Jul 10, 2009 Search White Pages
Skip Navigation Home Summer Guide Atlas Encyclopedia Dictionary Thesaurus Features Quizzes Timelines Countries Slideshows

Fact Monster Kid's reference,
games, quizzes

Help us improve Infoplease!
Start Survey

Editor's Favorites

Playfair, John

Playfair, John, 1748–1819, Scottish mathematician, physicist, and geologist. He was educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh and taught first mathematics and then physics and astronomy at the latter university. His Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802) elucidated the methods and principles of his friend James Hutton and established uniformitarianism as the foundation of the new science of geology. He also published texts on geometry, physics, and astronomy.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

More on John Playfair from Infoplease:

James Hutton - Hutton, James Hutton, James, 1726–97, Scottish geologist, chemist, and naturalist. He was ...
uniformitarianism - uniformitarianism uniformitarianism, in geology, doctrine holding that changes in the earth's ...
geology: Evolution of Geology - Evolution of Geology Early Geologic Studies Observations on earth structure and processes were made ...

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Geology and Oceanography: Biographies

Premium Partner Content

HighBeam Research

Related content from HighBeam Research on: John Playfair

William Playfair and his graphical inventions: an excerpt from the introduction to the republication of his Atlas and Statistical Breviary. (The American Statistician)

Unraveling the Web.(cipher created by Baron Lyon Playfair)(Brief Article) (Cobblestone)

New life for Edinburgh's temples of art.(John Miller provides National Gallery of Scotland unification with Royal Scottish Academy ) (Apollo)

Scotland's Italian connection (The Spectator)

Vanishing Species: Saving the Fish, Sacrificing the Fisherman (Northeastern Naturalist)

Hutton's unconformity (Natural History)

A great challenge for Scotland. (Apollo)

Making sense of numbers; Damned lies and statistics.(Book Review) (The Economist (US))

(book reviews) (Journal of Social History)

Chortle while you work.(laughter and fun at work)(Brief Article) (U.S. News & World Report)

Additional search results provided by HighBeam Research, LLC. © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.

Infoplease Tools