Реферат: Nicolaus Mercator

Born: 1620 in Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark (now Germany)

Died: 14 Jan 1687 in Paris, France

Nicolaus Mercator entered the University of Rostock in 1632. Hereceived a degree in 1641, then went to Leiden for a short period. After hisreturn to Rostock in 1642 he was appointed to a post in the university.

In 1648 Nicolaus moved to the University of Copenhagen but, afterworking there for six years, he had to leave when the university was closed dueto the plague. From this time on things were not too good for him.

He went to England in 1660 attempting to bring in some money anddid some private tutoring. He was recognised in England however since he waselected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1666. This was on the strength of apendulum clock which Mercator designed to work at sea and thus be used todetermine longitude. He also made measurements of air pressure for the RoyalSociety.

In 1682 he moved to France, this time with a specific position,namely to design the waterworks at Versailles.

While he was working at Copenhagen, Mercator published a number oftextbooks on spherical trigonometry, geography and astronomy. These wereTrigonometria sphaericorum logarithmica (1651), Cosmographia (1651), andAstronomica sphaerica (1651). He published further works in astronomy while inEngland, for example Hypothesis astronomia nova (1664) and Institutionesastronomicae (1676).

Mercator discovered the well known series, sometimes calledMercator's series,

ln(1+x) = x — x2/2 + x3/3 — x4/4+…

He published this in Logarithmotechnia 1668. This series was alsoinvestigated by  Mengoli.

There is some reason to confuse Nicolaus Mercator with  GerardusMercator since Nicolaus also worked on  Gerardus Mercator's map projection.

J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

Список литературы

Дляподготовки данной работы были использованы материалы с сайта www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/