Stevin

Simon Stevin

Born: 1548 in Bruges, Flanders (now Belgium).
Died: 1620 in The Hague, Holland

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Stevin published an elementary and thorough account of decimal fractions and introduced their use in mathematics

Stevin was a Dutch mathematician and engineer who founded the science of hydrostatics by showing that the pressure exerted by a liquid upon a given surface depends on the height of the liquid and the area of the surface.

While quartermaster in the Dutch army, Stevin invented a way of flooding the lowlands in the path of an invading army by opening selected sluices in dikes. He was an outstanding engineer who built windmills, locks and ports. He advised the Prince of Orange on building fortifications for the war against Spain.

The author of 11 books, Stevin made significant contributions to trigonometry, geography, fortification, and navigation. In Wereldschrift he defended the sun centred system of Copernicus. Inspired by Archimedes, Stevin wrote important works on mechanics.

In his book De Beghinselen der Weeghconst in 1586 appears the theorem of the triangle of forces giving impetus to statics. In 1585 he published La Theinde in which he presented an elementary and thorough account of decimal fractions.

Although he did not invent decimals (they had been used by the Arabs and the Chinese long before Stevin's time) he did introduce their use in mathematics. His notation was to be taken up by Clavius and Napier. Stevin states that the universal introduction of decimal coinage, measures and weights would only be a matter of time.

Stevin's notion of a real number was accepted by essentially all later scientists. Particularly important was Stevin's acceptance of negative numbers but he did not accept the 'new' imaginary numbers and this was to hold back their acceptance.

Stevin, in his book Stelreghel meaning Algebra, used the notation +, - and sqrt.

In 1586 (3 years before Galileo) he reported that different weights fell a given distance in the same time.

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. R Depau, Simon Stevin (Brussels, 1942).
  4. R Hooykaas and M G J Minnaert (eds.), Simon Stevin : Science in the Netherlands around 1600 (The Hague, 1970).
  5. R Grabow, Simon Stevin (Leipzig, 1985).
  6. E J Dijksterhuis, Simon Stevin ('S-Gravenhage, 1943). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996