John Napier

Napier (Napier) (Napier) John (1550-1617), Scottish mathematician, inventor of logarithms.

Descendant of an ancient Scottish warrior kind. He studied logic, theology, law, physics, mathematics, ethics. Was fond of alchemy and astrology. Invented by a number of useful agricultural implements. In 1590-ies came to the idea of logarithmic calculations and was the first table of logarithms, but his famous work "Description of the amazing table of logarithms, published only in 1614. In the late 1620-ies was invented slide rule, the counting tool that uses a table to simplify the calculations, Napier. With the slide rule operations on numbers are replaced by operations on the logarithms of these numbers.

In 1617, shortly before his death, Napier invented a mathematical set, designed to facilitate arithmetic. The set consisted of bars marked on them the numbers 0 to 9, and multiples of numbers. To multiply any number of bars had a number so that the numbers on the ends were the number. The answer can be seen on the sides of bars. In addition to multiplication, sticks Napier allowed to perform division and square root.