John Napier

John Napier ( Napier also Latinized ), Laird of Merchiston (* 1550 in Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, † April 3, 1617 ) was a Scottish mathematician and scholar.

Biography

Napier was the eldest son of the Scottish Barons Archibald of Merchiston and received his training at the University of St Andrews. Then he traveled probably Europe and acquired knowledge in mathematics and literature. 1572 he received many of the lands of his father.

He wrote a book about the logarithm ( 1614), the basis of which he, regardless of the Swiss Jost Bürgi, developed. Named after him Napier's rules for the right-angled spherical triangle are described imperfectly in his Constructio.

The Napier's rods computing had a significant impact on the development of computing machines. Through them it was Wilhelm Schickard possible to build the first mechanical calculator.

To him, the auxiliary unit ( Pseudomaß ) was called the damping in electric and acoustic vibrations Neper honor, but which was increasingly replaced in recent times by the Bel or decibel. In addition to Napier was the Nit, one no longer in use dimensionless unit of the data set named.

One of the resident in Edinburgh universities contributes his honor his name, Edinburgh Napier University. The university has several distributed over the whole city campus. The Merchiston Campus, the oldest campus of the university is built around Merchiston Castle, born and died by John Napier, around.

The lunar crater Napier is named after him.

Writings

• Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio ejusque usus in utraque trigonometria etc., Edinburgh 1614 English translation by Ian Bruce Napier: Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio .. among other things