John Napier. Portrait of the Scottish mathematician John Napier (1550-1617), the discoverer of logarithms. Napier came from a landed family and so was
John Napier. Portrait of the Scottish mathematician John Napier (1550-1617), the discoverer of logarithms. Napier came from a landed family and so was educated in France and at St. Andrews in Scotland. He studied mathematics as a hobby and he published his first logarithm tables in 1614, in the process of which he developed decimal notation. For the tables he chose the transendental number e (approximately ) as the base. These Napierian, or natural, logarithms are most relevant to exponential systems. His logarithms greatly helped Kepler in his calculations of planetary motion. This artwork is from a book published in 1833.
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Photo credit: © GEORGE BERNARD/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: creator, discoverer, john, logarithm, logarithms, mathematician, napier, portraits, rule, slide, surname, tables
