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A LECTURE
BY
Cambridge :
4
JOHN NAPIER AND THE INVENTION
OF LOGARITHMS, 1614
In the present year there will be held a
of "
the publication John Napier's Mirifici
of numeration.
6 JOHN NAPIER
It is almost always extremely instructive to
ingly I
propose to give an account, as concise as
may be, of the conception of a logarithm in the
of Napier*.
been thair ;
sa far as his utter trawell diligens and
" "
The contents of the Descriptio and of the
"
Construction
" "
The Descriptio consists of an ornamental
title page, fifty-seven pages of explanatory matter,
and ninety pages of tables. A specimen page of
the tables is here reproduced. The explanatory
matter contains an account of Napier's conception
I K
80 t
JOHN NAPIER 19
equidistant angles. It is
important to observe
that the logarithms in Napier's tables are not
Nap
is that, if x is a number, and Log x its
Nap
—^—%
T qqt
io
7
is the logarithm
b
.
of —
X
io
-
t
7
to the base
lie ; thus
Nap
Log.*
X
, >
V
/l io'
io' \ej
Nap
or Log x = o i
7
log e i o7 — o i
7
loge x.
is
given, expressed in words ;
the other three
A T
24 JOHN NAPIER
S. He supposes that on another straight line a
point Q moves with uniform velocity equal to that
where p 1
is the position of P when it has not yet
P P Plt 2> 3 ,
... be the corresponding positions of
P; so that P P^ P P
X 2 3 , P%P» ••• are spaces
JOHN NAPIER 25
progression.
The matter may be put in a concise form
which represents the gist of Napier's reasoning,
and of the essential point of which he had a clear
intuition.
P P'
1
>
r-J 1 .
Let
PS = PS and be
-p-* -^-p.
;
let p any point
in PP
x it and /' the corresponding point in P P,
t ;
to its when at /.
^=^=-~-p) velocity
follows that
P S_P
1
m S_P
m S_
m" 2 9
u
PtS P S P S t t
PP PP2 3 , 3 4 ,
... are described in equal times. Thus
the logarithms of a set of numbers in geometric
gression.
In our modern notation, if x = SP, we have
—= r,
7
where V denotes the velocity of P
dt io
at T; and if
*V—'T.Q, -Z=V\ thus -y- = =;
dt dy io7
differential equation.
JOHN NAPIER 27
— 1 1 1
T P x S
— 1 1 1
ft T, G
Since the velocities of P and Q at T, T
x
are
clear that TP l
< T^Q^. Again let p T on the left
t
Nap
hogx> TP lt or jo7 —x;
and
Nap
Log x=y T 1 1 <f> T,
1
or TP 1
—IQ 7
-, which is
(io
7
-*) x '
— . Thus
(io
7 — x) —Q >Logx>
j
7
Nap
io
7
—x ...(i);
—x
\o-y—x > hogx— Logy>
Nap Nap y
7
io -
...(2),
7
numbers io ( 1 ;
7 ) ,
where r has the values o to
\ io /
First Table
'-oto
X°V~itf)> iooj
I OOOOOOO'OOOOOOO
I'OOOOOOO
99999990000000
-9999999
9999998 'OOOOOO I
'9999998
999999 7 '0000003
'9999997
9999996*0000006
to be continued up to
9999900*0004950
30 JOHN NAPIER
The second table consists of the 51 numbers
io7 (i 1)
,
where r = o, 1, ... 50. The com-
mon ratio 1
1
is nearly equal to ( 1
7
J
,
Second Table
r
Io7 x
{ ( -^) "'—»*} '
I OOOOOOO'OOOOOO
IOO'OOOOOO
9999900*000000
99*999000
9999800*001000
to be continued up to
9995001*222927
50
1 N
1 " '
Whkh is nearly I ~ 2oW'
loV
JOHN NAPIER 31
th
thus the/^ number in the q column is
Third Table
First column Second column 69th column
I OOOOOOO "oooo 9900000-0000 .
5048858*8900
9995000*0000 9895050*0000 .
5046334-4605
9990002*5000 9890102-4750 .
5043811-2932
9985007*4987 9885157-4237 .
5041289-3879
continued to continued to continued to
i-t4tt or i^fr-
10000 :
9995.
say y < x.
J y
Determine z so that —=- ; then
10
7
x ,
Nap
find the limits of Logz by means of the first table,
Nap Nap
Log:r, and we thus get the limits of Logy. In
h. 3
34 JOHN NAPIER
logarithm is taken to be 100024*9707740, the
mean of the two limits. The first number in
Short Table
Given
JOHN NAPIER 37
Nap
To calculate this table, Napier found Log io
7
Nap
and Log 500000 by using the radical table ;
and
thus 6931469*22 was found as the difference of
Nap Nap
Log \ io + Log
7
sin x
Nap Nap
= Log sin \x+ Log sin (90 — \x),
definition of a sine.
Other Tables.
places.
Predecessors of Napier.
n
ff ,
'
and of — V ——
-,
-
ej + ... + n *
A rival inventor.
series ;
thus the red numbers are the logarithms of
8
the black ones divided by io with the base
y i*O0Ol. Biirgi appears to have devised his
JOHN NAPIER 47
Napier.
Conclusion.
that is
indispensable for all elaborate arithmetical
AA 000139 312 3