William Neile

William Neile (born December 16, 1637 in Bishopthorpe near York , † August 24, 1670 in White Waltham , Berkshire ) was an English mathematician .

Neile was the son of Sir Paul Neile (1613–1686), one of the founders of the Royal Society , high official with Charles I and hobby astronomer with his own observatory in his house in White Waltham, in which Christopher Wren was a guest. He also built his own telescopes. His grandfather Richard Neile was Archbishop of York. His mother Elizabeth Clarke was the daughter of the Archdeacon of Durham Gabriel Clarke. Neile studied from 1652 at Oxford University in Wadham College , where he was a student of John Wilkins and Seth Ward in mathematics. In 1657 he studied law at the Middle Temple in London and was later a member of the Privy Council of Charles II.

As a student he made a sensational mathematical discovery for his time: he determined the arc length of an algebraic curve (a cubic) - it was the Neil or semicubic parabola later named after him - and traced it back to an integration (area determination). Hendrick van Heuraet in the Netherlands (and Pierre de Fermat ) did this independently around the same time . Neile lettered the discovery to William Brouncker and Christopher Wren of the Gresham College Society and it was published by John Wallis in his 1659 treatise De Cycloide . Neile formulated the solution in geometric language, but Wallis translated it into algebraic form.

Neile became one of the early members of the Royal Society in 1663 and became a member of its council in 1666 (like his father).

Neile also dealt with the laws of motion in mechanics and astronomy.

He died when he was only 32 years old. His last years were marred by jaundice and his father's refusal to consent to a marriage proposed by Neile.

Web links

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