Henry BriggsDied 26 Jan 1630 (born Feb 1561).English mathematician whoconstructed the decimal-based common (Briggsian) logarithms that use base 10, and popularized them in Europe. John Napier had already ntroduced “natural” logarithms (1614) that use the base e(2.71...). Briggs visited Napier in 1616, and they agreed on the merit of using base 10. By 1624, Briggs had calculated logarithm tables to 14 decimal places, published in Arithmetica Logarithmica. These tables vastly simplified the task of mathematicians, astronomers and other scientists making otherwise long and tedious calculations. Briggs was professor of astronomy at Oxford from 1619. He is also credited with developing the modern method of long division. Briggs was strongly opposed to astrology, at a time when it was otherwise widely accepted by many scholars, including Napier.«[Image: Title page of Arithmetica Logarithmica, 1624] |
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