Abstract
The first tables of logarithms appeared in the early part of the seventeenth century, the best known being due to John Napier and Henry Briggs. We will see something of the ingenuity that went into the creation of these tables in this precalculus era. A little later in the seventeenth century Gregory of St. Vincent cleverly deduced that the logarithm may be expressed as the area under a hyperbola. Following the development of the calculus, his result is seen to be obvious! As so often in the history of mathematics, a hard-won mathematical truth is subsequently viewed as “only” a special case of some grander truth. Yet such pioneering discoveries, including that of Gregory of St. Vincent, remain wonderful achievements.
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence only increases in an arithmetical ratio.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Malthus, T.R. (2000). Logarithms. In: Two Millennia of Mathematics. CMS Books in Mathematics / Ouvrages de mathématiques de la SMC. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1180-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1180-8_2
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7035-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-1180-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive