Logarithms Research Paper

We are a spieces of invention and innovative ideas, we always look to the future and try to find a way to make our work simpler and faster. Especially four hundred years ago when astronomers and mathematicians were our future. They charted the stars and wrote long equations to help with things like ship navigation, but this took time and was tedious. That's where our mathematicians come into play, creating equations like Logarithms. Mathematical and Scientific research would have taken much longer if Logarithms had not been invented and developed.
There were many men involved in the creation and evolution of Logarithms. The first was a Scottish Mathematician and Theologist, John Napier. He published his first book on the Logarithm in 1614 called …show more content…
He wanted to shorten the time by creating a short cut. His original work is difficult to follow, but what he did was create a way to change the multiplying numbers to new numbers that could be added. After recieving the sum, you would find the matching number; the real number. In order to switch these numbers John Napier had to create a table.
"The basic idea of what logarithms were to achieve is straightforward: to replace the wearisome task of multiplying two numbers by the simpler task of adding together two other numbers." (The Open University, 2011)
John Napier used the idea of motion(kinematics) to depict how his Logarithmic progression would work. Think of a particle or body of some kind travelling on an infinite line at equal segments and always at the same speed. This line is the Logarithms. Now think of another line from zero to ten million, a body also travelling on this line. It starts it's travel the same time as the latter body in motion. On this line the particle slows down; it would not reach it's end due to distances becoming shorter with time. This line is the regular numbers, or Antilogarithms. (Clark & Montelle, para. 3; The Open Univeristy, para. …show more content…
"Briggs continued alone, publishing in 1624 a table of logarithms calculated to 14 decimal places for numbers from 1 to 20,000 and from 90,000 to 100,000."(Francis J. Murray) He called this publication "Arithmetica Logarithmica" which translates to “Common Logarithms”(Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Joost Burgi was another creator of Logarithms, independent from John Napier and Henry Briggs. He was a Swiss Mathematician that published his version of a Logarithm Table, he believed that you didn't need to have several tables for the different Maths (Addition, Subtraction, Division and Multiplication). Burgi published his work on the Antilogarithm in 1620 called "Arithmetische und Geometrische Progress Tabulen (Arithmetic and Geometric Progression Tables)"(Clark & Montelle, para. 1).
"Bürgi grounded his conception directly in the relation between two progressions. He stated that he was able to create one table for a multiplicity of calculations by considering two “self-producing and corresponding progressions”. (Clark &

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