Henry Briggs

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Canon logarithmorum

Henry Briggs , family name also Brigde or Brigs, (* February 1561 in Warleywood near Halifax (West Yorkshire) , † January 26, 1630 in Oxford ) was an English mathematician .

Life

Briggs studied at Cambridge since 1577 , becoming a Bachelor of Arts in 1581, Master of Arts in 1585 and a Fellow of St John's College , Cambridge in 1588 . In 1592 he sure lecturer in medical lectures ( "Reader of the Physic Lecture founded by Dr Linacre") at the Royal College of Physicians of London and in 1596 was examiner for the subject of mathematics, now a professor of geometry old at that time a few years Gresham College in London .

By Briggs's time, the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge had largely lost their scientific importance and had remained in medieval ideas of science ( Aristotle , Galen, etc.). As a rising maritime power, England urgently needed the dissemination and development of the most modern mathematical techniques for navigation, so Thomas Gresham founded a college in which various professors were to give public lectures on modern topics "in their mother tongue" - in English.

At Gresham College, Briggs formed the nucleus of a circle of modern Copernicans, including the famous navigator and applied mathematician Edward Wright , the natural philosopher William Gilbert , the popularizer of scientific ideas Thomas Blundeville, and others. The result is Gilbert's epoch-making work “De Magnete”, in which Wright and Briggs played a part. During this time Briggs has dealt intensively with questions of navigation. Some of his work can be found in Wright's On Certain Errors in Navigation and in Blundeville's books.

When John Napier published a work on logarithms in 1614 , Briggs immediately recognized their importance. During a visit to Napier in Scotland in 1615, he suggested using base 10 for the logarithms. Therefore, the logarithms to base 10 are also called Briggs' logarithms or decadic logarithms . From then on, Briggs worked intensively on calculating logarithms, and in less than seven years he determined 30,000 logarithms to 14 decimal places. His real achievements in this area lie in a groundbreaking new calculation method of logarithms via continued extraction of the roots. He not only founded the difference calculus, but also discovered Newton's binomial theorem for the special case of exponent 0.5.

In the meantime there have been efforts at the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge to free these institutions from the medieval encrustation. At Oxford, Sir Henry Savile founded two chairs for this purpose, one in geometry and one in astronomy.

In 1619 Briggs became the first Savilian Professor of Geometry at Merton College , Oxford . In addition to working on the logarithms, he has dealt with the cartography of North America, with shipbuilding plans and the construction of a canal.

Henry Briggs was buried in the chapel of Merton College. Typical for a Puritan is the completely unadorned grave slab, which only bears the inscription "Henricus Briggius". He was certainly one of the greatest mathematicians of his time and should not be underestimated as the carrier and disseminator of modern scientific ideas in England.

The Briggs Peak , a mountain in Antarctica, and the lunar crater Briggs is named after him.

Fonts

  • Thomas Blundeville: The Theoriques of the seuen Planets, shewing all their diuerse motions, and all other Accidents, called Passions, thereunto belonging. Whereunto is added by the said Master Blundeuile, a breefe Extract made by him, of Magnus his Theoriques, for the better understanding of the Prutenicall Tables, to calculate thereby the different motions of the seuen Planets. There is also hereto added, The making, description, and vse, of the two most ingenious and necessarie Instruments for Sea-men, to find out therebye the latitude of any place vpon the Sea or Land, in the darkest night that is, without the helpe of Sunne, Moone, or Rigidity. First inuented by M. Doctor Gilbert, a most excellent Philosopher, and one of the ordinarie Physicians to her Maiestie: and now here plainely set down in our mother tongue by Master Blundeuile . London 1602. (Contains Brigg's table of polar heights and its description and calculation for a device for determining the magnetic inclination according to Gilbert.)
  • Edward Wright: Certaine Errors in Navigation Detected and Corrected with Many additions that were not in the former edition as appear in the next pages . London 1602. (Contains other navigation panels calculated by Briggs.)
  • Logarithmorum chilias great . 1618. (first presentation of his new logarithmic system)
  • Arithmetica logarithmica . London 1624. ( logarithms of the numbers from 1 to 20,000 and 90.000 to 100,000 with 14 decimal digits)
  • Trigonometria britannica . Gouda 1633. (Table of the logarithms of the sines and tangents through all hundred parts of a degree to 14 decimal places, at the same time with a table of the sines, tangents and secants )

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Some sources give 1556 as the year of birth, which contradicts the information in the Halifax Parish Register of Baptisms.