James Gregory (mathematician)

James Gregory
James Gregory (1638–1675)
BornNovember 1638 (1638-11)
DiedOctober 1675(1675-10-00) (aged 36)
Edinburgh, Scotland
NationalityScottish
CitizenshipScotland
Alma materMarischal College, University of Aberdeen
University of Padua
Known forGregorian telescope
Gregory coefficients
Diffraction grating
Fundamental theorem of the calculus
Integral of the secant function
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Astronomy
InstitutionsUniversity of St. Andrews
University of Edinburgh
Notes

James Gregory FRS (November 1638 – October 1675) was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. His surname is sometimes spelt as Gregorie, the original Scottish spelling. He described an early practical design for the reflecting telescope – the Gregorian telescope – and made advances in trigonometry, discovering infinite series representations for several trigonometric functions.

In his book Geometriae Pars Universalis (1668)[1] Gregory gave both the first published statement and proof of the fundamental theorem of the calculus (stated from a geometric point of view, and only for a special class of the curves considered by later versions of the theorem), for which he was acknowledged by Isaac Barrow.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

  1. ^ Gregory, James (1668). Geometriae Pars Universalis. Museo Galileo: Patavii: typis heredum Pauli Frambotti.
  2. ^ William Johnston Associate Dean of the College and Stodghill Professor of Mathematics Centre College; Alex McAllister Associate Professor of Mathematics Centre College (26 June 2009). A Transition to Advanced Mathematics : A Survey Course: A Survey Course. Oxford University Press. pp. 329–. ISBN 978-0-19-971866-5.
  3. ^ Edmund F. Robertson. James Gregory: Regius Professor of Mathematics.
  4. ^ Michael Nauenberg. Barrow and Leibniz on the fundamental theorem of the calculus.
  5. ^ Andrew Leahy. A Euclidean Approach to the FTC – Gregory's Proof of the FTC.
  6. ^ Ethan D. Bloch. The Real Numbers and Real Analysis, pg. 316.
  7. ^ Roger L. Cooke (14 February 2011). The History of Mathematics: A Brief Course. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 467–. ISBN 978-1-118-03024-0.
  8. ^ D. J. Struik. A Source Book in Mathematics, 1200-1800. Harvard University Press. pp. 262–. ISBN 978-0-674-82355-6.