John Napier
John Napier was born very rich in Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1550. His father was a very important man in the late 16th century. That is when he acquired The Merchiston estate. There is very little known about the early years of John Napier's life. He was a very smart man and grew up to be a well known inventor and genius. He led a great life and will never be forgotten in the field of mathematics or science. Some of his inventions changed the lives of calculators such as logarithms.
When John was 13 he went to school at St. Andrews University by the orders of his mom and uncle. His mom also made arrangements for him to attend St. Salvator's college. The principal was to take care of him personally. In 1571 he returned to Scotland to take over the Merchiston estates. When the estate was finally completed in 1574 Napier and his wife moved in. Napier devoted himself to running the estates. This task he took very seriously and, being a great genius and inventor, he applied his skills to these tasks. He approached agriculture in a scientific way and he experimented.
Napier was also a fanatical protestant. He took part in many religious controversies. He wrote the Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John. In fact there were good reasons why Napier thought a change in the religious situation in Scotland might occur. There had been many rumors for some time that Phillip of Spain might invade Scotland. The book he wrote had gained Napier quite a reputation, not only with Scotland, but all over the continent once his work had been translated.
As Napier's life proceeded he became more and more popular around Scotland. Napier wrote the king letters about religious controversies and discoveries that he had made. All the work Napier had done had really paid off in the long run. He lived as a rich, happily married man until the time of his death. Mathematicians thought greatly of Napier's work. He had grown to be a very well known theologian and mathematician.
He was more of a serious theologian than mathematician. He looked at math as a hobby more than an occupation. He made many great discoveries in math in advanced calculations and formulas. The work he had done in the field of math with calculations and formulas helped people all over in the region. Napier traveled all around the continent making speeches trying to persuade people to make the right choice about their religion. He changed the ways of hundreds in religion with his speeches and famous writings.
Napier also invented the decimal point which would change math forever. He figured many ways to do multiplication and division using metal plates which is the earliest known attempt at mechanical means of calculation, making him the grandfather of our modern day calculator. Some of his ideas were absolutely amazing to think of all the equipment he lacked. If not for Napier's ideas we would waist countless hours on worthless math problems that can be done on our modern day calculators with the push of a button.
John Napier will never be forgotten for his great discoveries, formulas, and religious theories. His work changed many all over the world in their beliefs and ways of calculating a math problem. On April 4th Edinburgh Scotland Napier died at the age of 67. He once said, "I hope my logarithms will save calculators much time and free them from slippery errors of calculations. Laplace said 200 years later said, "By shortening the labors, Napier doubled the life of astronomers."
John Napier and His Accomplishments
Who was John Napier? John Napier was a famous mathematician who was born in 1550 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His Father Archibald was important to 16th century Scotland. In 1549 he married Janet Bothwell at 15 years of age. The following year John was born into their family.
At the age of 14 John attended St. Andrew’s University in 1563. It is thought that he was maybe put there as a shelter from all of the arguing between Catholics and protestants. He wrote that he first became interested in theology while he was there. His name also appears on the matriculation roll of St. Salvator’s in 1563. Soon after that his mother passed away. He most likely left St. Andrew’s before he was awarded any degrees. He left in order to go study in Europe, but it is unknown exactly where he studied.
In 1571 John went back to Scotland to attend his father’s second marriage. Most of the estates his family owned were given to him, so in 1572 he planned to live in a castle with his wife on the Gartness estate. He ran his estate very skillfully and used much of his knowledge for developing new ways of agriculture.
In 1593 Napier wrote Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John. He worked on the book from the age of 16 until he turned 40 (a total number of 27 years). The book was about religious controversy, and in it he accused the pope(s) for being the anti-Christ, and even predicted the end of the world. He first gained his reputation not only in Scotland but in other places throughout the continent after the book was published.
Once Napier took off in his study of mathematics and theology he became famous for his logarithms. Napier also became known for his formulas used in solving spherical triangles, and he invented two other rules for finding square and cube roots. In 1614 he published a book called Mirifice Canonis Descriptio, which is where you can find his studies on logarithms. His calculations for the book took 20 years. A logarithm is a mathematical raising of a base number; for example, the power to which a base must be raised to equal a given number. Logarithms are based on the thought that all numbers can be thought of as a continuous and infinitive series. Actually if it weren’t for logarithms Newton would have never discovered the laws of gravity; logarithms led to Johannes Kepler’s discovery of the laws of planetary motion, which later led to Newton’s discovery as well. Of course, Napier also owes a lot of thanks to Henry Briggs. Briggs was one of Napier’s biggest fans, and visited the castle a few times to suggest new ways that logarithms could be improved. He suggested that the base 10 should be used, and he even was the producer of the first few tables of logarithms.
Another one of John Napier’s works is Rabdologiae (1617), which included a method for the use of “numbering rods.” The set of numbering rods that John owned were made out of ivory, hence the term, “Napier’s bones.” The so-called bones were used for multiplying numbers. You simply place the bones side by side and the products read off. It was an easier way to do a type of math called “galley,” and it can also be used in finding roots and powers.
If Napier could have he would have gotten rid of arithmetic all together, and replaced it with an easier rational system that anyone could use. In fact he even pioneered the use of the decimal point two whole centuries ahead of his time. His idea was to do original math with exponents of other numbers that represent the numbers in which the math is being done.
Napier also came to the decision that the procedure with seven places of decimals had no future use, so he experimented with about half a dozen methods. In the end, he came up with an accurate replacement, which is the method called mean, (or average).