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Nicholas (Nikolaus) Mercator (c. 1620 Eutin
Eutin

Eutin is the district capital of Ostholstein located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As fo 2005, it had some 17,000 inhabitants....
-1687 Versailles
Versailles

Versailles , formerly de facto capital of the kingdom of France, is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and is still an important administrative and judicial centre....
), also known by his Germanic name Kauffmann, was a 17th-century mathematician.

Lived in the Netherlands (1642-1648); lectured at the University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,153,615 . Copenhagen is situated on the Islands of Zealand and Amager....
 (1648-1654); lived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 (1655-1657); Mathematics tutor to Joscelyne Percy, son of the 10th Earl of Northumberland, at Petworth, Sussex (1657); taught mathematics in London (1658-1682); became member of the Royal Society
Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence....
 in 1666; designed a marine chronometer for Charles II
Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
; designed and constructed the fountains at the Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal ch?teau in Versailles, the ?le-de-France region of France. In French language, it is known as the Ch?teau de Versailles....
 (1682-1687).

Mathematically, he is most well-known for his treatise Logarithmo-technica on logarithms, published in 1668.






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Nicholas (Nikolaus) Mercator (c. 1620 Eutin
Eutin

Eutin is the district capital of Ostholstein located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As fo 2005, it had some 17,000 inhabitants....
-1687 Versailles
Versailles

Versailles , formerly de facto capital of the kingdom of France, is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and is still an important administrative and judicial centre....
), also known by his Germanic name Kauffmann, was a 17th-century mathematician.

Lived in the Netherlands (1642-1648); lectured at the University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,153,615 . Copenhagen is situated on the Islands of Zealand and Amager....
 (1648-1654); lived in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 (1655-1657); Mathematics tutor to Joscelyne Percy, son of the 10th Earl of Northumberland, at Petworth, Sussex (1657); taught mathematics in London (1658-1682); became member of the Royal Society
Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence....
 in 1666; designed a marine chronometer for Charles II
Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
; designed and constructed the fountains at the Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal ch?teau in Versailles, the ?le-de-France region of France. In French language, it is known as the Ch?teau de Versailles....
 (1682-1687).

Mathematically, he is most well-known for his treatise Logarithmo-technica on logarithms, published in 1668. In this treatise he described the Mercator series
Mercator series

In mathematics, the Mercator series or Newton?Mercator series is the Taylor series for the natural logarithm. It is given byvalid for −1 < x ≤ 1....
, also independently discovered by Gregory Saint-Vincent:

It was also in this treatise that the first known use of the term natural log for the natural log appears, in the Latin form log naturalis; his use of this term is somewhat surprising, since it predates the development of calculus
Calculus

Calculus is a branch of mathematics that includes the study of limit , derivatives, integrals, and infinite series, and constitutes a major part of modern university education....
, in which the most natural properties of this logarithm appear.

To the field of music he contributed the first precise account of 53 equal temperament
53 equal temperament

In music, 53 equal temperament, called 53-TET, 53-equal division of the octave, or 53-ET, is the Temperament scale derived by dividing the octave into fifty-three equally large steps....
, which was of theoretical importance, but not widely practiced.

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