Joseph Raphson

Joseph Raphson (* 1648 in Middlesex , England ; † 1715 ) was an English mathematician .

Live and act

Little is known about him. He earned a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in 1692 . A year earlier in 1691 he was elected to the Royal Society because of his book Analysis aequationum universalis , published in 1690 , which contains the Newton-Raphson method for the numerical solution of nonlinear equations and especially of the roots of algebraic equations. The procedure is included in Newton's Method of Fluxions , written in 1671 but not published until 1736. He was one of the few who was allowed to see Newton's manuscripts early on. As early as 1691 he was with Edmond Halleyinvolved in plans to publish Newton's writings on analysis, which was not realized until much later. Roger Cotes and William Jones arranged for Raphson to see Newton's De Methodis Serierum et Fluxionum in advance.

His History of Fluxions did not appear until after his death in 1715. In it he supported Newton's priority over Leibniz in the dispute over the invention of analysis. In the new edition, Newton added a few letters from and to Leibniz. Raphson also translated Newton's Arithmetica Universalis into English (published as Universal Arithmetick in 1720). In 1702 he published an edited English edition of the Mathematics Lexicon by Jacques Ozanam . He also wrote theological treatises ( De spatio reali seu Ente Infinito 1697 and Demonstratio de Deo 1710) which show Kabbalistic influences.

Web links

• John J. O'Connor, Edmund F. Robertson :  Joseph Raphson. In: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .