- Born:
- February 1561, Warleywood, Yorkshire, England
- Died:
- January 26, 1630, Oxford (aged 68)
- Subjects Of Study:
- common logarithm
- logarithm
- natural logarithm
- trigonometry table
Henry Briggs
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Who was Henry Briggs?
Henry Briggs (1561–1630) was an English mathematician and inventor of the common, or Briggsian, logarithm. His writings promoted the acceptance of logarithms throughout Europe and made calculations easier for mathematicians, astronomers, and other scientists.
Briggs was a professor of geometry at Gresham College in London and later became Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford in 1619. He also played a role in bridging the gap between mathematical theory and practice, advising on surveying, shipbuilding, mining, and drainage.
Briggs collaborated with John Napier, inventor of logarithms, to modify Napier's logarithms to base 10, now known as common logarithms or Briggsian logarithms. In 1624, Briggs published Arithmetica Logarithmica, which contained logarithms from 1 to 20,000 and from 90,000 to 100,000 calculated to 14 decimal places.
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What was Henry Briggs best known for in mathematics?
Henry Briggs, an English mathematician, is best known for inventing the common, or Briggsian, logarithm. Briggsian logarithms use base 10, unlike Napierian logarithms that use a base approximately equal to 1/e. Briggs' writings significantly contributed to the widespread acceptance of logarithms throughout Europe, easing the burden for scientists who performed tedious calculations. In 1624, Briggs published an extensive table of common logarithms. His innovation was instrumental in easing the burden of mathematicians, astronomers, and other scientists who had to make long and tedious calculations.
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What are logarithms and how did Henry Briggs work with them?
A logarithm is the power to which a base number must be raised to equal a given number. For example, if (2^3 = 8), then 3 is the logarithm of 8 to base 2, or (3 = log_2 8).
Henry Briggs (1561-1630) was an English mathematician who invented common logarithms, also known as Briggsian logarithms. Briggs collaborated with John Napier, who initially developed logarithms, and convinced him to modify them to base 10. In 1617, Briggs published Logarithmorum Chilias Prima, which contained an explanation of logarithms along with the logarithms of numbers from 1 to 1,000, calculated to 14 decimal places. In 1624, he published Arithmetica Logarithmica, which contained logarithms from 1 to 20,000 and 90,000 to 100,000, also calculated to 14 places.
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How did Henry Briggs improve John Napier's original logarithms?
Henry Briggs improved upon John Napier's logarithms by changing the base to 10, which simplified calculations and made the tables more practical for widespread use. Initially, Napier's logarithms used a base approximately equal to 1/e (where e ≈ 2.718), but Briggs recognized the benefit of using base 10, now known as common logarithms or Briggsian logarithms. In 1624, Briggs published Arithmetica Logarithmica, which contained tables of logarithms from 1 to 20,000 and from 90,000 to 100,000, calculated to 14 decimal places. Briggs also devised techniques using the calculus of finite differences and interpolation methods to calculate the entries.
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Why were Briggs's base-10 (common) logarithms important for calculations?
Henry Briggs, an English mathematician, introduced common, or Briggsian, logarithms, which greatly helped mathematicians, astronomers, and other scientists who had to perform lengthy, complex calculations.
Logarithms, which were created in the 17th century, significantly decreased the amount of time needed to multiply numbers with numerous digits. Briggs collaborated with John Napier and realized the potential of logarithms to simplify astronomical and navigational calculations. Together, they modified Napier's logarithms to use base 10, which are now known as common logarithms.
Briggs's work resulted in the publication of tables of logarithms, which greatly influenced the field of trigonometry. Trigonometric procedures were modified to create formulas that performed logarithm-dependent operations all at once. Using tables then only required two steps: obtaining logarithms and, after performing calculations with the logarithms, obtaining antilogarithms.
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How did Henry Briggs's work impact the development of mathematics during his lifetime and after?
Henry Briggs, an English mathematician, significantly impacted the development of mathematics by inventing the common, or Briggsian, logarithm. Briggs collaborated with John Napier, who initially discovered logarithms, and convinced him to modify his logarithms to base 10.
Briggs' writings and tables of logarithms eased calculations for mathematicians, astronomers, and other scientists. He published Logarithmorum Chilias Prima in 1617, offering an explanation of logarithms and tables from 1 to 1,000. In 1624, he published Arithmetica Logarithmica, which contained logarithms from 1 to 20,000 and 90,000 to 100,000, calculated to 14 decimal places. Briggs also discussed the nature and construction of logarithms, anticipating work by James Gregory and Isaac Newton.
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Henry Briggs (born February 1561, Warleywood, Yorkshire, England—died January 26, 1630, Oxford) was an English mathematician who invented the common, or Briggsian, logarithm. His writings were mainly responsible for the widespread acceptance of logarithms throughout Europe. His innovation was instrumental in easing the burden of mathematicians, astronomers, and other scientists who must make long and tedious calculations.
About 1577 Briggs entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1581 and a master’s degree in 1585. He was elected a fellow of St. John’s in 1589 and a lecturer in mathematics and medicine there in 1592. While at St. John’s, Briggs began research in astronomy and navigation with the mathematician Edward Wright. In 1596 Briggs was appointed the first professor of geometry at the newly opened Gresham College in London, and for more than two decades he was instrumental in establishing it as a major centre for scientific research and advanced mathematical instruction. Briggs also took an active part in bridging the gap between mathematical theory and practice. He instructed mariners in navigation, advised explorers on various proposed expeditions, and invested in the London Company (responsible for founding Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607). His publications from this period include A Table to find the Height of the Pole, the Magnetic Declination being given (1602) and Tables for the Improvement of Navigation (1610); he returned to the subject of exploration later with A Treatise of the Northwest Passage to the South Sea, Through the Continent of Virginia and by Fretum Hudson (1622). In addition, Briggs’s advice was avidly sought on surveying, shipbuilding, mining, and drainage.
Briggs’s early research focused primarily on astronomy and its applications to navigation, and he was among the first to disseminate the ideas of the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) in England. However, with the publication of John Napier’s Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (1614; “Description of the Marvelous Canon of Logarithms”), Briggs immediately realized the logarithm’s potential to ease astronomical and navigational calculations and so turned his attention and energy to improving the idea. During 1615 and 1616 Briggs paid two long visits to Edinburgh, Scotland, to collaborate with Napier on his new invention, during which time he convinced Napier of the benefit of modifying his logarithms to use base 10, now known as common logarithms, or Briggsian logarithms in his honour. (Napier had used a base approximately equal to 1/e, where e ≅ 2.718, and logarithms with base e are now called natural logarithms, or Napierian logarithms.) In 1617, shortly after Napier’s death, Briggs published Logarithmorum Chilias Prima (“Introduction to Logarithms”), wherein he offered a brief explanation of the new invention together with the logarithms of numbers from 1 to 1,000, calculated to 14 decimal places. For the next several years, Briggs devoted himself to the time-consuming and laborious task of constructing a larger table of logarithms. The Arithmetica Logarithmica (“Common Logarithms”), published in 1624, advertised the utility of logarithms in expediting calculations. In addition to tables of logarithms from 1 to 20,000 and from 90,000 to 100,000 calculated to 14 decimal places, an extended preface provided ample testimony of Briggs’s originality. The preface contained an important discussion of the nature and construction of logarithms that anticipated by nearly half a century the foundational work of James Gregory (1638–1675) and Isaac Newton (1643–1727), among others. Furthermore, Briggs’s lengthy immersion in the practical interpolation of logarithmic functions resulted in his anticipating Newton in the discovery of the binomial theorem.
By the time the Arithmetica Logarithmica was published, Briggs no longer resided in London, as he was elected Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford in 1619. The following year he published an edition of the first six books of Euclid’s Elements but, unfortunately, did not live long enough to complete a revised and full edition of the text. His final publication, the Trigonometria Britannica (1633; “Trigonometry in Britain”), covering the application of logarithms to trigonometric functions, appeared posthumously.