John Speidell Explained
John Speidell (fl. 1600–1634) was an English mathematician. He is known for his early work on the calculation of logarithms.
Speidell was a mathematics teacher in London[1] [2] and one of the early followers of the work John Napier had previously done on natural logarithms.[3] In 1619 Speidell published a table entitled "New Logarithmes" in which he calculated the natural logarithms of sines, tangents, and secants.[4] [5]
He then diverged from Napier's methods in order to ensure all of the logarithms were positive.[6] A new edition of "New Logarithmes" was published in 1622 and contained an appendix with the natural logarithms of all numbers 1-1000.[7]
Along with William Oughtred and Richard Norwood, Speidell helped push toward the abbreviations of trigonometric functions.
Speidel published a number of work about mathematics, including An Arithmeticall Extraction in 1628.[8] His son, Euclid Speidell, also published mathematics texts.[9]
Notes and References
- Book: John Aubrey. Andrew Clark. 'Brief Lives': I-Y. 1898. At the Clarendon Press. 230–231.
- Book: Kerry Downes. John F. Bold. Edward Chaney. Edward Chaney. English Architecture Public & Private: Essays for Kerry Downes. 1993. A&C Black. 978-1-85285-095-1. 28–.
- Book: E. W. Hobson. John Napier and the Invention of Logarithms, 1614: A Lecture by E.W. Hobson. 29 March 2012. Cambridge University Press. 978-1-107-62450-4. 43–.
- Book: Charles Hutton. Mathematical Tables, Containing Common, Hyperbolic and Logistic Logarithms, Also Sines Tangents, Secants and Versed Sines, Both Natural and Logarithmic. 1785. Robinson and Baldwin. 30–.
- Book: Florian Cajori. A History of Mathematical Notations. 26 September 2013. Courier Corporation. 978-0-486-16116-7. 1–.
- Book: Sir David Brewster. Second American edition of the new Edinburgh encyclopædia. 1819. Published by Samuel Whiting and John L. Tiffany; also, by N. Whiting, New-Haven; A. Seward, Utica; S. Parker, Philadelphia; Wm. Snodgrass, Natchez; and I. Clizbe, New-Orleans 1819.. 112–.
- Book: Florian Cajori. A History of Mathematics. 1893. Macmillan & Company. 165–.
- Book: Augustus De Morgan. Arithmetical Books from the Invention of Printing to the Present Time: Being Brief Notices of a Large Number of Works Drawn Up from Actual Inspection. 1847. Taylor and Walton. 37–.
- Beeley . Philip . Practical mathematicians and mathematical practice in later seventeenth-century London . The British Journal for the History of Science . June 2019 . 52 . 2 . 225–248 . 10.1017/S0007087419000207. 31198123 .