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   Chris Samuel (chris_bloke@mastodon.acm.org)'s status on Thursday, 26-Feb-2026 13:28:01 JST Chris Samuel

   If you're ever thinking "oh my work will never come to anything" spare a thought for Robert Recorde of Tenby in Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

   He invented the equals sign (=) in 1557 (the year before he died) "to auoide the tediouſe repetition of theſe woordes : is equalle to" - and was promptly ignored for 61 years before being picked up again in 1618.

   #mathematics #Wales #Cymru

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Samuel (chris_bloke@mastodon.acm.org)'s status on Thursday, 26-Feb-2026 21:39:10 JST Chris Samuel

     • Infoseepage

     @Infoseepage thank you! Went to Pembrokeshire (and Tenby) most years as part of our family holiday as a kid. Don't _think_ we went into St Mary's (but I could easily be wrong, that was a long long time ago now).

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     Allan (allancavanagh@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-Feb-2026 23:08:20 JST Allan

     • Infoseepage

     @Infoseepage @chris_bloke he looks kinda familiar.

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     Chris Samuel (chris_bloke@mastodon.acm.org)'s status on Friday, 27-Feb-2026 05:06:12 JST Chris Samuel

     • Infoseepage

     @Infoseepage hope you do get to make another trip! So many castles (both Welsh and Norman).

     If you're into languages there's also the non-physical entity of the landsker line in that part of south-west Pembrokeshire which has predominantly English place names to the south-west and Welsh to the north-east. The result of the Norman attempt to take over Wales via the harbours along that part of the coast. For added oddity "landsker" derives from Norse instead!