Joseph Betts

{{Short description|English mathematician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Joseph Betts

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|birth_place = England

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|nationality = British

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|field = Mathematics

|work_institutions = University College, Oxford

|alma_mater = University College, Oxford

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|known_for = Savilian Professor of Geometry

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Joseph Betts was an English mathematician. He held the Savilian Chair of Geometry at the University of Oxford in 1765.{{cite book| title=Oxford's Savilian Professors of Geometry: The First 400 Years | editor-first=Robin | editor-last=Wilson | editor-link=Robin Wilson (mathematician) | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2022 | isbn=978-0198869030 | pages=55, 71, 74–75, 93, 236, 261 }}

Betts was an undergraduate and Fellow of University College, Oxford, where he was a tutor of William Jones.{{cite book| last=Darwall-Smith | first=Robin | authorlink=Robin Darwall-Smith | title=A History of University College, Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2008 | isbn=978-0-19-928429-0 | chapter=13 – Glory and Decline: 1764–1807 | pages=274–278 }} He had previously sought election as Savilian Professor of Astronomy with the support of the Earl of Lichfield, the Earl of Halifax, and the Earl of Bute. He thanked his patrons for that failed attempt in the dedication to an engraving of the annular solar eclipse of 1 April 1764.{{cite web| url=https://mhs.web.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/hsm-catalogue-5610 | title=Print (Engraving) of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 1 April, 1764, by Joseph Betts, engraved by Cole, Oxford, c. 1764 | publisher=History of Science Museum, Oxford | location=UK | accessdate=3 May 2022 }}