Johan Hudde

Johan Hudde , also Jan Hudde, Latinized Hudenius, (born April 23, 1628 in Amsterdam ; † April 15, 1704 ibid), heer van Waveren en Sloterdijk , was an Amsterdam city regent and an important mathematician of the Golden Age .

Johann van Waveren Hudde

life and work

family

He came from the Hudde patrician family . His parents were the merchant Gerrit Hudde and Maria Witsen, who traded on the Levant . In 1673 he married the two-time widow Debora Blaeuw (1629–1702). Through her second husband Johan Oetgens van Waveren , the title of Lord of Waveren (including the titles Botshol and Ruige Wilnis ) came to Johan Hudde. There were no children from this marriage.

As a mathematician

Specilla circularia ; a text by Johannes Hudde about telescopes from 1656

Hudde enrolled at Leiden University to study law there. From 1654 to 1663 he worked on mathematical problems in the geometry working group Frans van Schootens . In 1656 Hudde found a power series expansion for ln (1 + x ), in the following year he worked on the partial flooding of Holland in order to stop the advance of the French army . Van Schooten published a two-volume translation of Descartes La Géométrie (1659–1661), on which Hudde Johan de Witt and Hendrick van Heuraet collaborated.

Hudde worked on minima and maxima, systems of equations and polynomial division . He was the first to bring out an algebra book called De reductione aequationum in which positive and negative coefficients were no longer treated differently. Hudde also worked in the fields of optics and manufactured lenses for microscopes and telescopes. He was also in long contact with Huygens by letter , with whom he discussed questions about channel maintenance and probability calculations.

As a politician

See also : Regent of Amsterdam

Hudde had already completed his mathematical life's work when he started his political career. From 1663 he held various positions in the city administration of Amsterdam. In the summer of 1672, the Rampjaar , the former Republican Hudde became a supporter of the House of Orange . After Wilhelm III. von Orange secured the power of the murdered Johan de Witt , and the former Amsterdam regent Andries de Graeff was relieved of his offices, he was, together with his relatives Gillis Valckenier and Coenraad van Beuningen, one of the key figures in the Amsterdam city government , he served for 30 years as one of the four mayors.

Hudde was peace-loving and obedient and followed Valckenier in political matters. After Valckenier's death in 1680, Hudde became a very powerful man in the city government. In 1688 Hudde was an opponent of the ships to be equipped for the invasion planned on England. Nicolaas Witsen and Cornelis Geelvinck also raised doubts, but ultimately agreed to the planned invasion of Wilhelm III. from Orange to.

literature

• Gottwald, Ilgauds, Schlote: Lexicon of important mathematicians , Leipzig 1990, entry Jan Hudde

Web links

Commons : Johannes Hudde  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Johan Hudde. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• Specilla circularia , Johannes Hudde uber teleskopen (in Dutch)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography in the Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek (NNBW), Part 1, pages 1172 to 1176
2. ^ Joost van den Vondel: Ter Bruilofte Van den edelen en hooghachtbaeren Heere, Jongkheere Joan van Waveren, Out Schepen van Amsterdam, En Mejoffer Debora de Blaeuw
3. ↑ BWNW.cwi-incubator.nl Biography in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederlandse Wiskundigen (BWNW) ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Andries de Graeff , Gillis Valckenier and Coenraad van Beuningen	Regent and Mayor of Amsterdam 1672–1703 together with Gillis Valckenier (1665–1679), Coenraad van Beuningen (1669–1684), Joan (II) Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (1673–1693), Joan Corver (1681–1715) and Nicolaas Witsen (1682-1705)	Jeronimo de Haze de Georgio and Gerbrand Michielsz Pancras