John Napier

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

John Napier

For other people with the same name, see John Napier (disambiguation)
John Napier (disambiguation)

John Napier may refer to*John Light Napier , U.S. Representative from South Carolina*John Mellis Napier , judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia...
.

John Napier of Merchistoun (1550 – 4 April 1617) - also signed as Neper, Nepair - named Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
mathematician

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
, physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many Physics#Major fields of physics spanning all length scales: from atom particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole ....
, astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
/astrologer

Astrologer

An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an undertaking's beginning, etc....
and 8th Laird

Laird

A Laird is a member of the Gentry and a hereditary title in Scotland. The title of Laird may carry certain local or feudal rights, though unlike a Lord of Parliament, a Lairdship has never carried voting rights, either in the historic Parliament of Scotland or, after unification with the Kingdom of England, in the Great Britain House of Lord...
of Merchistoun, son of Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston. He is most remembered as the inventor of logarithm

Logarithm

In mathematics, the logarithm of a number to a given base is the Power or exponent to which the base must be raised in order to produce the number....
s and Napier's bones

Napier's bones

Napier's bones is an abacus created by John Napier for calculation of products and quotients of numbers that was based on Arab mathematics and lattice multiplication used by Fibonacci writing in the Liber Abaci....
, and for popularizing the use of the decimal point.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'John Napier'

Start a new discussion about 'John Napier'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Advances in mathematics

He made what is undoubtedly a key advance in the use of mathematics. Logarithms are the converse of powered numbers, and made calculations by hand much easier and quicker, and thereby opened the way to many later scientific advances. His work, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, contained fifty-seven pages of explanatory matter and ninety pages of tables, which facilitated advances in astronomy

Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
, dynamics

Dynamics (mechanics)

In physics the term dynamics customarily refers to the time evolution of physical processes. These processes may be microscopic as in particle physics, kinetic theory, and chemical reactions, or macroscopic as in the predictions of statistical mechanics and nonequilibrium thermodynamics....
, physics

Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
, and astrology

Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
. He also improved Simon Stevin

Simon Stevin

Simon Stevin was a Flemish people mathematician and engineer. He was active in a great many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical....
's decimal notation, and Arab lattice multiplication, used by Fibonacci

Fibonacci

Leonardo of Pisa , also known as Leonardo Pisano, Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo Fibonacci, or, most commonly, simply Fibonacci, was an Italy mathematician, considered by some "the most talented mathematician of the Middle Ages"....
, writing Napier's bones

Napier's bones

Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
, as he used the Book of Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John , and Revelation of Jesus Christ is the last Biblical canon of the New Testament in the Christian Bible....
to predict the Apocalypse

Apocalypse

Apocalypse is a term applied to the disclosure to certain privileged persons of something hidden from the majority of humankind. Today the term is often used to refer to the Doomsday event, which may be a shortening of the phrase apokalupsis eschaton which literally means "revelation at the end of the ?on, or age"....
, in A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John, which he regarded as his most important work. Napier believed that the end of the world would occur in 1688 or 1700. He is also sometimes claimed to have been a necromancer

Necromancy

Necromancy is a form of divination in which the practitioner seeks to summon "operative spirits" or "spirits of divination", for multiple reasons, from spiritual protection to wisdom....
; however, it was common for scientifically talented people of the period to be accused of such things without basis.

Astrology
Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
and the Occult
Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g....

In addition to his mathematical and religious interests, Napier was commonly believed to be a magician, and is thought to have dabbled in alchemy and necromancy. It was said that he would travel about with a black spider in a small box, and that his black rooster was his familiar spirit

Familiar spirit

In early modern English superstition, a familiar spirit, imp, or familiar is an animal-shaped spirit who serves for Witchcraft, a demon, or other magician-related subjects....
.

Napier used this rooster

Rooster

A rooster, also called a cock or chanticleer is a male chicken , the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels....
to find out which of his servants had been stealing from his home. He would shut the suspects one at a time in a room with the bird, telling them to stroke it. The rooster would then tell Napier which of them was guilty. Actually, what would happen is that he would secretly coat the rooster with soot. Servants who were innocent would have no qualms about stroking it but the guilty one would only pretend he had, and when Napier examined their hands, the one with the clean hands was guilty.

Another occasion which may have contributed to his reputation as a sorcerer involved a neighbour whose pigeons were found to be eating Napier's grain. Napier warned him that from now on he intended to keep any pigeons found on his property. The next day, it is said, Napier was witnessed surrounded by unusually passive pigeons which he was scooping up and putting in a sack. The previous night he had soaked some peas in brandy, and then sown them. Come morning, the pigeons had gobbled them up, rendering themselves incapable of flight.

Also of note is that a contract still exists between John Napier and one Robert Logan of Restalrig to search Fast Castle

Fast Castle

Fast Castle is the ruined remains of a coastal fortress in Berwickshire, south-east Scotland. It lies at Grid reference , four miles north west of the village of Coldingham, and just outside of the St Abb's Head National Nature Reserve, run by the National Trust for Scotland....
(by means of magic) for treasure allegedly hidden there, and wherein it is stated that Napier should

"...do his utmost diligence to search and seek out, and by all craft and ingine to find out the same, or make it sure that no such thing has been there."

Eponyms

An alternative unit to the decibel

Decibel

The decibel is a logarithmic units of measurement that expresses the magnitude of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level....
used in electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
, the neper

Neper

A neper is a logarithmic unit of ratio. It is not an SI unit but is accepted for use alongside the SI. It is used to express ratios, such as gain and loss, and relative values....
, is named after John Napier, as is Napier University

Napier University

Edinburgh Napier University is a university in Edinburgh, Scotland....
in Edinburgh.

The crater Neper

Neper (crater)

Neper is an old moon impact crater located near the eastern limb of the Moon. Due to its location the crater must be viewed during a suitable libration, and is very foreshortened....
on the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
is named after him.

List of works

(1593) A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John.
(1614) Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio (a translation into English by Edward Wright
Edward Wright (mathematician)

Edward Wright was an England mathematician and cartographer noted for his book Certaine Errors in Navigation , which for the first time explained the mathematical basis of the Mercator projection, and set out a reference table giving the linear scale multiplication factor as a function of latitude, calculated for each minute of arc up to...
was published in 1616).
(1617) Rhabdologia (published posthumously
List of works published posthumously

The following is a list of works that were published, performed or distributed posthumously ....
).
(1619) Mirifici logarithmorum canonis constructio (written before the 'Descriptio', but published posthumously by his son Robert)

John Napier

Advances in mathematics

Eponyms

List of works

See also