History of john napier mathematician

Inhe lost his father and John and his family moved into Merchiston Castle located in Edinburgh.

History of john napier mathematician: John Napier is best

He remained here for the remainder of his life. This book contained 57 pages of different explanatory matter and 90 pages of tables of numbers that are related to natural logarithms. The book contains a great discussion of different theorems in spherical trigonometry. InHenry Briggs, a prominent English mathematician, visited John. Napier also made further contributions in mathematics.

John had a great interest in the Book of Revelation.

History of john napier mathematician: John Napier was.

He was also influenced by sermons of Christopher Goodman and therefore, he developed a very strong anti-papal reading. He used the Book of Revelation for a timeline of sorts in order to predict the Apocalypse. He also applied Sibylline Oracles to calculate the date the world would end. He believed that this would occur either between or He even dated the seventh trumpet to He advised the king to reform the universal enormities of the country beginning with his house, family, and court.

The book was a great success both at home and abroad. During the late 16th century, a Calvinist was trying to drive away Catholicism from Scotland. InNapier revolted against this using a book. Henry Briggs was an early adopter of the Napierian logarithm. He later computed a new table of logarithms to base 10, accurate to 14 decimal places.

An alternative unit to the decibel used in electrical engineeringthe neperis named after Napier, as is Edinburgh Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. The crater Neper on the Moon is named after him. In Finnish and Italian, the mathematical constant e is named after him Neperin luku and Numero di Nepero. Elizabeth died inand Napier then married Agnes Chisholm, with whom he had ten more children.

Napier's father-in-law, Sir James Chisholm of Cromlix, was one of many excommunicated by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian party following the Spanish blanks plot. Napier sat on the General Assembly that excommunicated the plotters, and petitioned the King James VI and I to enforce the punishment on the plotters, but was ultimately ignored since the King believed the ministers were acting cruelly, and was in favor of pursuing policies of more appeasement.

His half-brother through his father's remarriage was Alexander Napier, Lord Laurieston. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item.

History of john napier mathematician: Scottish mathematician and theological writer

Scottish mathematician — For other people with the same name, see John Napier disambiguation. EdinburghScotland. Life [ edit ]. Mathematics [ edit ]. Napier's Bones [ edit ]. Trigonometry [ edit ]. Theology [ edit ]. Interest in the occult [ edit ]. Influence [ edit ]. Eponyms [ edit ]. Family [ edit ]. List of works [ edit ]. See also [ edit ].

Notes [ edit ]. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston : his lineage, life, and times, with a history of the invention of logarithms. OCLC John Napier : life, logarithms, and legacy. ISBN July Washington, D. Archived from the original on 2 May Retrieved 10 March Translated by Wright, Edward; Bruce, Ian.

Archived PDF from the original on 22 April Retrieved 14 March Archived from the original on 17 May Retrieved 3 April Dictionary of National Biography. The Construction of the Wonderful Canon of Logarithms. Translated by Macdonald, William Rae. In numbers distinguished thus by a period in their midst, whatever is written after the period is a fraction, the denominator of which is unity with as many cyphers after it as there are figures after the period.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed. Oxford University Press. Shortly after Napier matriculated his mother died. We know that Napier spent some time at St Andrews University and he wrote himself many years later that it was in St Andrews that he first became passionately interested in theology. However Napier's name does not appear in the list of those being awarded degrees in the subsequent years so he must have left St Andrews to study in Europe before completing a degree.

Of other facts we can also be certain. Napier did not acquire his knowledge of higher mathematics at St Andrews nor did he acquire his deep knowledge of classical literature there. Both these must have been acquired during his studies in Europe but no record exists to show where he studied, although the University of Paris is highly likely and it is also probable that he spent some time in Italy and the Netherlands.

By Napier had returned to Scotland for he was present at his father's second marriage which took place in that year. It was in that Napier himself began to make arrangements for his own marriage but it was at nearly two years before that took place. In most of the estates of the Napier family were made over to John Napier and a castle was planned for the estate at Gartness.

When the castle was completed inNapier and his wife took up residence there.

History of john napier mathematician: John Napier of Merchiston, nicknamed

Napier devoted himself to running his estates. This task he took very seriously and, being a great genius as an inventor, he applied his skills to these tasks. He approached agriculture in a scientific way and he experimented with The above is quoted in [ 12 ] without reference to its origin. Napier took part in the religious controversies of the time.

He was a fervent Protestant and published, what he considered his most important work, the Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John Napier had been a fanatical Protestant from his days as an undergraduate at St Andrews. John according to his preface In fact there were good reasons why Napier thought that a change in the religious situation in Scotland might occur, for there had, for some time, been rumours that Philip of Spain might invade Scotland.

John did gain Napier quite a reputation, not only within Scotland, but also on the Continent after the work was translated into Dutch, French and German. Gibson, in [ 12 ]remarks however I suppose that there are few indeed of the present generation who have read, or even heard of, the book; whatever its merits may have been they do not appeal to the modern mind