What is the history of MathWorld?
MathWorld began life more than 12 years ago. The earliest incarnation of MathWorld was a document written in an early version of Microsoft Word on a Macintosh Plus. This document had reached about two hundred pages by the time the author started graduate school in 1990. The author began cross-referencing entries, anticipating that the entire document might someday be converted to hypertext. This hope/dream was realized beginning in 1995, when the internet explosion was in full swing and the author posted the encyclopedia to a personal web site at the California Institute of Technology as part of his web site Eric’s Treasure Troves of Science. From July 1996 to June 1999, the author continued to develop and improve the encyclopedia in his spare time while working as a research scientist at the University of Virginia. During this time, the encyclopedia was initially hosted in the author’s personal directory in the Department of Astronomy’s web server. Starting in June 1999, the author ac
