Talk:John Napier
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I think "undoubtedly one of the most important inventions in math" and "in line with Archimedes, Newton, Einstein" is slightly exaggerated. Logarithms are an important contribution, no doubt. Maybe we could reduce the hyperbole though. --AxelBoldt
I think he also wrote some religious treatises. Extreme Calvinist stuff i think. Don't how how important that was considered at the time.
I thought that the decimal point was first invented by Simon Stevin. See http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Stevin.html for example. -- Dominus 15:05, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)
- The Simon Stevin page says he didn't, but it credits Bartholomaeus Pitiscus with the invention of the decimal point. -- Dominus 15:07, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Nearly every major mathmatical discovery has been "discovered" at least twice. He may well have "discovered" it.
--Gunter 03:58, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC) Didn't Joost Buerghi (Switzerland) developed the Logarithm table in 1588? This preceeds Napier.
Is Napier = Neper ? What is the explanation for the two spellings?
john napier
John Napier popularized the decimal, not invented it! and Napier and Naper are the same thing, just one is in a different language...