BARROW Isaac

BARROW, ISAAC (Barrow, Isaac) (1630-1677), English mathematician, philologist and theologian. Born in 1630 in London. Since 1660 - Professor, University of Cambridge. In 1669 the department gave the most eminent of his disciples - I. Newton. In 1675 he was elected vice-chancellor of Cambridge University. Barrow - one of the predecessors of Newton and Leibniz in the establishment of the infinitesimal calculus. He developed a method for finding tangents, more general than the method of Fermat and very close to modern methods, based on the use of differentials. Barrow first realized that the problem of the inverse tangent in relation to the problem of quadratures, but his commitment to the geometrical approach and reluctance to operate on the concepts of variable and functions are not allowed him to see the significance of this connection. Among the works of Barrow - Lectures on Optics (Lectiones opticae, 1669), Lectures on the geometry (Lectiones geometrisae, 1670) and Lectures on Mathematics (Lectiones mathematicae, 1683).
Barrow died in London on May 4, 1677.