Napier

Napier (John Napier, 1550～1617) once translated Napier. Born near Edinburgh, Scotland in 1550, died in Edinburgh on April 4, 1617. He was a baron who engaged in theology in his early years, but he also had a strong interest in mathematics. He proved in Euclid's way that the Roman Pope was the Antichrist and that the end of the world would be in 1786. He considered his book "A Trivial Discovery in the Revelation of St. John" to be his most important contribution. Following this theological work, he began to work on reforming practical methods of numerical calculation in 1594. He hid in Murchistone Castle near Edinburgh in southern Scotland and worked on this work for 20 years. The discovery of logarithms was his truly immortal contribution to mankind. Now "Napier logarithms" are known to every middle school student.

Napier's logarithm tables first appeared in his book Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (1614), in which he only provided an introduction to how to calculate An introduction using these tables is given in his book, and a brief explanation of the methods used in calculating the tables themselves, as well as the reasoning on which they are based, is summarized in another of his works, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Constructic. 1619), which unfortunately was not published until after his death.

Using logarithms can transform complex multiplication and division into simpler addition and subtraction. These advantages are very obvious. Kepler's discovery of the third law of planetary motion was aided by Napier's logarithm table. The use of logarithms greatly simplified complex calculations.

It is worth noting that at that time, fractional powers and exponential notation had not yet been introduced, and the decimal point system was not generally adopted. Napier's systematic use of the decimal point greatly promoted In the 17th century, people generally used decimal point notation.

Now, we think that the logarithm logax of the number x (based on a) is a number y that makes ay raised to the yth power equal to x. We also regard the logarithm as a function and the inverse function of the exponential function. However, the general concept of functions had not yet been established at that time, and Napier's calculations were based on specific correspondences.

Geometry professor Briggs (1561-1631) made a special trip to Napier and suggested taking 10 as the base, agreeing that the logarithm of 1 is zero. Briggs made contributions to later logarithmic propagation. In his work published in 1624, he gave a commonly used logarithmic table of thirty thousand numbers, accurate to 14 decimal places