Ezekiel de Decker

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Ezekiel de Decker (* around 1603 in Leiden ; around 1643 ) was a Dutch master mathematician, surveyor and editor of log tables .

De Decker was a teacher of arithmetic and from 1621 a citizen of Gouda can be proven. In 1629 he went to Rotterdam , where he taught navigation and published a book " Praxis der Große Seefahrt " (Practijck van de Groote Zeevaert). Around 1640 he moved to The Hague where he carried out calibration measurements on barrels.

De Decker got in touch with Adriaan Vlacq (a publisher) in 1625 to publish books on arithmetic art by John Napier , Simon Stevin , Henry Briggs and Decker himself, which happened in 1626 in Eerste Deel van de Nieuwe Telkunst . In 1627 the decimal logarithm tables of Briggs (Arithmetica Logarithmica, 1624) followed as Tweede Deel , but they were completed by the numbers from 20,000 to 90,000, which were missing in Briggs. Compared to Briggs, the logarithms were reduced from 14 to 10 decimal places. The first edition under the name of de Decker found only limited circulation, the second in 1628 under the name of Vlacq was very successful and Vlacq also published foreign-language editions.

Since Vlacq published the other editions apparently without objection from Decker, it was long assumed (e.g. Dirk Struik ) that Vlacq played a major role in their creation. This has recently been contradicted because Vlacq's background was that of a bookseller and publisher, not that of a mathematician. Vlacq probably did the translation (De Decker's poor command of Latin) and financed the books.

literature

  • Otto E. van Poelje Adriaen Vlacq and Ezechiel de Decker: Dutch Contribution to the Early Tables of Briggsian Logarithms , Journal of the Oughtred Society, Volume 14, 2005, No. 1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Denis Roegel A reconstruction of Adriaan Vlacq's tables in the Trigonometria artificialis (1633), 2011, pdf . Sometimes 1647 is also given for the date of death.
  2. ↑ Napier published the first log tables in 1614
  3. ^ EM Bruins On the history of logarithms: Bürgi, Napier, Briggs, de Decker, Vlacq, Huygens, Janus, Volume 67, 1980, pp. 241-260
personal data
SURNAME Decker, Ezekiel de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1603
PLACE OF BIRTH Suffer
DATE OF DEATH around 1643