John Playfair
John Playfair ? Portrait by Henry Raeburn
Born	( 1748-03-10 ) 10 March 1748 Angus
Died	20 July 1819 (1819-07-20) (aged 71)

John Playfair FRSE , FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Scottish scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh .

He is perhaps best known for his book Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802), which summarised the work of James Hutton . It was through this book that Hutton's principle of uniformitarianism first reached a wide audience. The idea was later taken up by Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin . Playfair is also remembered for his proposal of an alternative to Euclid 's parallel postulate .

Works [ change | change source ]

• 1802: Illustrations of the Huttonian theory of the Earth .
• Dissertation on the progress of Mathematical and Physical Science since the revival of learning in Europe in the Encyclopædia Britannica (Supplement to fourth, fifth and sixth editions).

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