Portrait after an engraving of John Napier (1550- 1617), Scottish mathematician and inventor of logarithms. Napier came from a landed family, so was e
Portrait after an engraving of John Napier (1550- 1617), Scottish mathematician and inventor of logarithms. Napier came from a landed family, so was educated in France and at He persued mathematics as a hobby, being more interested in religious controversy. In his long study of imaginary roots he developed decimal notation in addition to a set of logarithms. For this he chose the transendental number e (approximately ) as the base. These are known as Naperian, or natural, logarithms and are most relevant to exponential systems. His logarithms greatly helped Kepler in his calculations of planetary motion.
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Keywords: inventor, john, logarithms, mathematician, napier, portraits, surname
