Simon Stevin - Citizendia

Simon Stevin

Simon Stevin (1548/49 – 1620) was a Flemish mathematician and engineer. The terms Fleming and Flemings ( Vlaming and Vlamingen in Dutch) denote respectively a person and people and the Flemings or A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. An engineer is a person professionally engaged in a field of Engineering. He was active in a great many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. He also translated various mathematical terms into Dutch, making it one of the few European languages in which the word for mathematics, wiskunde, was not derived from Greek (via Latin). Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome.

1 Biography
2 Discoveries and inventions
3 Publications
4 External links
5 References
6 Further reading
7 Trivia

Biography

Stevin was born in Bruges, Flanders (now Belgium) in the year 1548 by Antheunis Stevin and Cathelyne van der Poort. Bruges (Brugge is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Very little has been recorded about his life. Even the exact date of birth and the date and place of his death (The Hague or Leiden) are uncertain. "Leyden" redirects here For other uses see Leyden (disambiguation. It is known that he left a widow with two children; and one or two hints scattered throughout his works inform us that he began life as a merchant's clerk in Antwerp, that he travelled in Poland, Denmark and other parts of northern Europe. ||-||-||-||} Antwerp ( Dutch:, French: Anvers) is a City and Municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe After his travels, he became advisor and teacher of Prince Maurice of Nassau, who asked his advice on many occasions, and made him a public officer—at first director of the so-called "waterstaet" (the government authority for public works), and later quartermaster-general. Maurice of Nassau (Maurits van Nassau ( 14 November 1567 &ndash 23 April 1625) Prince of Orange (1618&ndash1625

In Bruges there is a Simon Stevin Square which contains his statue by Eugen Simonis.

Discoveries and inventions

His claims to fame are varied. His contemporaries were most struck by his invention of a so-called land yacht, a carriage with sails, of which a little model had been preserved in Scheveningen until 1802. Land sailing, also known as sand yachting or land yachting, is the act of moving across land in a wheeled Vehicle powered by Wind Scheveningen (ˈsxeːfənɪŋə is one of the eight Districts of The Hague, as well as one of its subdistricts ( wijken) The carriage itself had been lost long before. Around the year 1600 Stevin, with Prince Maurice of Orange and twenty-six others, made use of it on the beach between Scheveningen and Petten. The carriage was propelled solely by the force of wind, and acquired a speed which exceeded that of horses.

Philosophy of science

Stevin had developed a theory about a bygone age of wisdom, for which even Hugo Grotius gave him great credit. Hugo Grotius or Huig de Groot, or Hugo de Groot; ( Delft, 10 April 1583 Rostock, 28 August 1645 Stevin's goal was to bring about a second age of wisdom, in which mankind would have recovered all of its earlier knowledge. He had deduced that the language spoken in this age would have had to be Dutch, because, as he had showed empirically, in that language, more concepts could be indicated with monosyllabic words than in any of the (European) languages he had compared it with. This was one of the reasons why he wrote all of his works in Dutch and left translations to others. The other reason was that he wanted his works to be practically useful to people who had not mastered the common scientific language of the time, Latin.

Geometry and physics

Stevin's proof of the law of the equilibrium on an inclined plane

Stevin was the first to show how to model regular and semiregular polyhedra by delineating their frames in a plane. Geometry ( Greek γεωμετρία; geo = earth metria = measure is a part of Mathematics concerned with questions of size shape and relative position Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Stevin also distinguished stable from unstable equilibria. He proved the law of the equilibrium on an inclined plane, using an ingenious and intuitive diagram showing a rope containing evenly spaced beads draped over an inclined plane (see the illustration on the side). The diagram is said to have been inscribed on his tombstone, leading the physicist Richard Feynman to remark to his students, "If you get an inscription like that on your tombstone, you are doing fine!"

He demonstrated the resolution of forces before Pierre Varignon, which had not been remarked previously, even though it is a simple consequence of the law of their composition. Richard Phillips Feynman (ˈfaɪnmən May 11 1918 – February 15 1988 was an American Physicist known for the Path integral formulation of quantum Pierre Varignon ( Caen 1654 – December 23, 1722 Paris) was a French Mathematician.

Stevin discovered the hydrostatic paradox, which states that the downward pressure of a liquid is independent of the shape of the vessel, and depends only on its height and base. Fluid statics (also called hydrostatics) is the Science of Fluids at rest and is a sub-field within Fluid mechanics.

He also gave the measure for the pressure on any given portion of the side of a vessel.

He was the first to explain the tides using the attraction of the moon.

In 1586, he demonstrated that two objects of different weight fall down with exactly the same acceleration.

Music theory

Stevin was the first author in the West (1585, simultaneously with, and independently of, Zhu Zaiyu in China) to give a mathematically accurate specification for equal temperament. Zhu Zaiyu ( (1536-1611 a prince of the Ming dynasty of China was a Musician and one of the first people to discover Equal temperament in Equal temperament is a Musical temperament, or a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical Frequency ratio. He appears to have been inspired by the writings of the Italian lutenist and musical theorist Vincenzo Galilei (father of Galileo Galilei), a onetime pupil of Gioseffo Zarlino. Vincenzo Galilei (c 1520 &ndash July 2, 1591) was an Italian lutenist, Composer, and music theorist, and the father of Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 &ndash 8 January 1642 was a Tuscan ( Italian) Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer, and Philosopher Gioseffo Zarlino ( January 31 or March 22, 1517 &ndash February 4, 1590) was an Italian music theorist and

Bookkeeping

Bookkeeping by double entry may have been known to Stevin, as he was a clerk in Antwerp in his younger years, either practically or through the medium of the works of Italian authors such as Luca Pacioli and Gerolamo Cardano. ||-||-||-||} Antwerp ( Dutch:, French: Anvers) is a City and Municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli (sometimes Paciolo) (1446/7&ndash1517 was an Italian Mathematician and Franciscan friar collaborator with However, Stevin was the first to recommend the use of impersonal accounts in the national household. He brought it into practice for Prince Maurice, and recommended it to the French statesman Sully. Maximilien de Béthune Duke of Sully ( December 13, 1560 &ndash December 22, 1641) was the doughty soldier French minister staunch Huguenot

Decimal fractions

Stevin wrote a 36 page booklet called De Thiende ('the tenth'), first published in Dutch in 1585, though the French translation "Disme" The sub-title: teaching how all computations that are made in business may be performed by integers without the aid of fractions doesn't exceed seven pages was referencing unit fractions or Egyptian fractions. A unit fraction is a Rational number written as a fraction where the Numerator is one and the Denominator is a positive Integer An Egyptian fraction is the sum of distinct Unit fractions such as \tfrac{1}{2}+\tfrac{1}{3}+\tfrac{1}{16}

Decimal fractions had been employed for the extraction of square roots some five centuries before his time, but nobody established their daily use before Stevin. He felt that this innovation was so significant, that he declared the universal introduction of decimal coinage, measures and weights to be merely a question of time.

His notation is rather unwieldy. The point separating the integers from the decimal fractions seems to be the invention of Bartholomaeus Pitiscus, in whose trigonometrical tables (1612) it occurs and it was accepted by John Napier in his logarithmic papers (1614 and 1619). "Pitiscus" redirects here For the crater see Pitiscus (crater. For other people with the same name see John Napier (disambiguation.

Stevin printed little circles around the exponents of the different powers of one-tenth. That Stevin intended these encircled numerals to denote mere exponents is clear from the fact that he employed the very same symbol for powers of algebraic quantities. He didn't avoid fractional exponents; only negative exponents don't appear in his work.

Stevin wrote on other scientific subjects—for instance optics, geography, astronomy—and a number of his writings were translated into Latin by W. Snellius (Willebrord Snell). “Snellius” redirects here For the lunar crater named Snellius see Snellius (crater. There are two complete editions in French of his works, both printed in Leiden, one in 1608, the other in 1634.

Neologisms

Stevin thought the Dutch language to be excellent for scientific writing, and he translated a lot of the mathematical terms to Dutch. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname As a result, Dutch is one of the few Western European languages that have a lot of mathematical terms that do not stem from Latin. This includes the very name Wiskunde (Mathematics).

His eye for the importance of having the scientific language be the same as the language of the craftsmen may show from the dedication of his book De Thiende ('The Disme' or 'The Tenth'): 'Simon Stevin wishes the stargazers, surveyors, carpet measurers, body measurers in general, coin measurers and tradespeople good luck. ' Further on in the same pamphlet, he writes: "[this text] teaches us all calculations that are needed by the people without using fractions. One can reduce all operations to adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing with integers. "

Some of the words he invented evolved: 'aftrekken' (subtract) and 'delen' (divide) stayed the same, but over time 'menigvuldigen' became 'vermenigvuldigen' (multiply, the added 'ver' has no meaning). 'Vergaderen' became 'optellen' (add).

Another example is the Dutch word for diameter: 'middellijn', lit. : line through the middle.

The word 'zomenigmaal' (quotient lit. 'that many times') has become the perhaps less poetic 'quotiënt' in modern day Dutch.

Other terms did not make it into modern day mathematical Dutch, like 'teerling' (die, although still being used in the meaning as die), instead of cube. For other uses see either Die or Dice (disambiguation. Dice (the Plural of Die, from Old French his books where best sellers.

Publications

Amongst others, he published:

Tafelen van Interest (Tables of interest) in 1582;
Problemata geometrica in 1583;
De Thiende (La Theinde, The tenth) in 1585 in which decimals were introduced in Europe;
La pratique d'arithmétique in 1585;
L'arithmétique in 1585 in which he presented a uniform treatment for solving algebraic equations;
De Beghinselen der Weeghconst in 1586, accompanied by De Weeghdaet;
De Beghinselen des Waterwichts (Principles on the weight of water) in 1586 on the subject of hydrostatics;
Vita Politica. Algebraic geometry is a branch of Mathematics which as the name suggests combines techniques of Abstract algebra, especially Commutative algebra, with Fluid statics (also called hydrostatics) is the Science of Fluids at rest and is a sub-field within Fluid mechanics. Named Burgherlick leven (Civil life) in 1590;
De Stercktenbouwing (The construction of fortifications) published in 1594;
De Havenvinding (Position finding) published in 1599;
De Hemelloop in 1608;
Wiskonstighe Ghedachtenissen (Mathematical Memoirs). Fortifications are Military Constructions and Buildings designed for defense in Warfare Humans have constructed defensive works for Navigation is the process of reading and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another This included earlier works like De Driehouckhandel (Trigonometry), De Meetdaet (Practice of measuring), and De Deursichtighe (Perspective);
Castrametatio, dat is legermeting and Nieuwe Maniere van Stercktebou door Spilsluysen (New ways of building of sluices) published in 1617;
De Spiegheling der Singconst (Theory of the art of singing). Circle-trig6svg|300px|thumb|right|All of the Trigonometric functions of an angle θ can be constructed geometrically in terms of a unit circle centered at O. Measurement is the process of estimating the magnitude of some attribute of an object such as its length or weight relative to some standard ( unit of measurement) such as Perspective (from Latin perspicere to see through in the graphic arts such as drawing is an approximate representation on a flat surface (such as paper of an image as it is perceived A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate

External links

O'Connor, John J. & Robertson, Edmund F. , “Simon Stevin”, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
"Simon Stevin". The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive is an award-winning website maintained by John J Catholic Encyclopedia. The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
[1] contains an HTML version (including hyperlinks to explanations) of De Thiende and its translations into English, French and Swedish, and scans of these books
[2] contains a lot more information about Simon Stevin
[3] is the text of the Catholic Encyclopedia about Stevin. The author can hardly conceal his admiration, and for the rest the article is mostly a bibliography of Stevin's work.
[4] is a short essay on Simon Stevin by S. Abbas Raza at 3 Quarks Daily
[5] is an Internet bibliography regarding Simon Stevin.
[6] treats Stevin's use of the rule of false position.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14293b.htm
MathPages - Wonder En Is Gheen Wonder

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

Trivia

The study association of mechanical engineering at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, W.S.V. Simon Stevin is named after Simon Stevin. The Eindhoven University of Technology (in Dutch: Technische Universiteit Eindhoven or TU/e, and formerly Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven or THE is a university In Stevin's memory, the association has called its bar "De Weeghconst" and owns a self-built fleet of land yachts.

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