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Barrow, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Barrow, Isaac, 1630–77, English mathematician and theologian. His method of finding tangents prefigured the differential calculus developed by Isaac Newton. He was professor of mathematics at Cambri...

Gregory, James

(Encyclopedia)Gregory, James, 1638–75, Scottish mathematician. He invented a reflecting telescope (1661), which he described in his Optica promota (1663). In 1668 he became professor of mathematics at the Univ. o...

Sacrobosco, Johannes de

(Encyclopedia)Sacrobosco, Johannes de yōhänˈəs də săkrōbŏsˈkō [key], or John of Hollywood, c.1200–1256, English mathematician and astronomer. He wrote several widely read and influential books: Algorism...

Desargues, Gérard

(Encyclopedia)Desargues, Gérard zhārärˈ dəzärgˈ [key], 1591–1661, French mathematician and engineer, a founder of modern geometry. He discovered the theorems on involutions and transversals known by his na...

Playfair, John

(Encyclopedia)Playfair, John, 1748–1819, Scottish mathematician, physicist, and geologist. He was educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh and taught first mathematics and then physics and astronomy at the latter un...

Shapley, Lloyd Stowell

(Encyclopedia)Shapley, Lloyd Stowell shăpˈlē [key], 1923–2016, American mathematician and economist, b. Cambridge, Mass., Ph.D Princeton, 1953; son of Harlow Shapley. He worked at the RAND Corp. from 1954 to 1...

Euler, Leonhard

(Encyclopedia)Euler, Leonhard lāˈônhärt oiˈlər [key], 1707–83, Swiss mathematician. Born and educated at Basel, where he knew the Bernoullis, he went to St. Petersburg (1727) at the invitation of Catherine ...

Kepler, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Kepler, Johannes yōhäˈnəs kĕpˈlər [key], 1571–1630, German astronomer. From his student days at the Univ. of Tübingen, he was influenced by the Copernican teachings. From 1593 to 1598 he was...

Cournot, Antoine Augustin

(Encyclopedia)Cournot, Antoine Augustin äNtwänˈ ōgüstăNˈ ko͞ornōˈ [key], 1801–77, French mathematician and economist. He developed mathematical theories of chance and probability and was one of the firs...

Clairaut, Alexis Claude

(Encyclopedia)Clairaut, Alexis Claude älĕksĕsˈ klōd klĕrōˈ [key], 1713–65, French mathematician. He assisted P. L. M. de Maupertuis in measuring (1736) a degree of an arc of a meridian in Lapland. He is n...