John Napier

John Napier was sixteenth and seventeenth century Scottish man. He was born in 1550 and died in 1617. One of his hobbies was mathematics. He is best known for inventing logarithms.

He's respected for inventing logarithms. These were for changing multiplication and division problems to addition and subtraction. He also invented three mechanical calculating aids described in his book Rabdology. He invented the decimal point also of which he is respected for.

Napier had strong will. He wrote on algebra and arithmetic in a systematic treatise in a considerable portion. He spent years on developing his calculating aids useful in his time. Strong will was also shown in other treatise in church politics.

Even though he was respected for and had good strong will, he was imperfect in some ways. For example, he only lived to 67 years. Also he didn't take a degree in university. A couple of his calculating aids didn't become so popular either.

I think of John Napier as a hero because his calculating aids were very useful in his time. Bach then calculations had to be performed the long way which was very tedious and not error free. In inventing logarithms he reduced the time needed to be spent on calculations.