Frans van Schooten

Frans van Schooten (* 1615 in Leiden , Netherlands ; † 29 May 1660 in Leiden), also Latin-Dutch. Franciscus van Schooten , Dutch-French Franciscus à Schooten or Latin Franciscus Schooten , was a Dutch mathematician best known for popularizing the analytical geometry of René Descartes .

He is also called Frans van Schooten the Younger to distinguish him from his father Frans van Schooten the Elder (1581–1646).

Life

Schooten las Descartes's Géométrie (an appendix to his book Discours de la méthode ) before it was published. Finding it difficult to understand, he went to France to study the works of other mathematicians of the time such as François Viète and Pierre de Fermat . After his return to Leiden, he became a professor of mathematics, succeeding his father. His comments on Descartes' Géométrie were very important, as they made the work understandable to a broader class of mathematicians. They were therefore partly responsible for the spread of analytical geometry in the world. Through Schooten's work, Leiden became the center of the mathematical community for a brief period in the mid- 17th century .

Elliptical circle, see animation

Schooten also developed a trilogy of elliptical circles , hyperbolic circles and parabolic circles with which the corresponding curves can be drawn precisely.

His most famous pupil was probably Christiaan Huygens , whose treatise De Ratiociniis in Aleæ Ludo he published in 1657.

Works

Exercitationum mathematicarum libri , 1656-1657

Franciscus van Schooten: Exercitationvm Mathematicarum libri quinque. Lugdunum Batavorum [= suffering]: Johannes Elsevirius, 1656–1657. - The original in Dutch appeared a few years later under Mathematische Oeffeningen, begrepen in vijf Boecken. Gerrit van Goedesbergh, Amsterdam 1659.

literature

Moritz Cantor : Schooten, Franz van . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 328 f.

Web links

Literature by and about Frans van Schooten in the catalog of the German National Library
Publications by and about Frans van Schooten in VD 17 .
John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson : Frans van Schooten. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .

Individual evidence

↑ Christianus Hugenius: De Ratiociniis in Aleae Ludo . In: Johannes Elsevirius [Typograph], Franciscus à Schooten (ed.): Exercitationvm Mathematicarum: Libri Quinque . tape 5 : Exercitationvm Mathematicarum, Liber V. Continens Sectiones Triginta Miscellaneas . Academia Lugduno-Batava, Lugdunum Batavorum 1657 (translation from Dutch; the original was published a few years later in Dutch. - Academia Lugduno-Batava is Universiteit Leiden. - Lugdunum Batavorum is Leiden).

personal data
SURNAME	Schooten, Frans van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schooten, Franciscus; Schooten, Franciscus van; Schooten, Franciscus à
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	1615
PLACE OF BIRTH	Leiden , Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH	May 29, 1660
Place of death	Suffer

[1] Christianus Hugenius: De Ratiociniis in Aleae Ludo . In: Johannes Elsevirius [Typograph], Franciscus à Schooten (ed.): Exercitationvm Mathematicarum: Libri Quinque . tape 5 : Exercitationvm Mathematicarum, Liber V. Continens Sectiones Triginta Miscellaneas . Academia Lugduno-Batava, Lugdunum Batavorum 1657 (translation from Dutch; the original was published a few years later in Dutch. - Academia Lugduno-Batava is Universiteit Leiden. - Lugdunum Batavorum is Leiden).