John Wallis

John Wallis
Born3 December [O.S. 23 November] 1616
Ashford, Kent, England
Died8 November 1703(1703-11-08) (aged 86) [O.S. 28 October 1703]
NationalityEnglish
EducationFelsted School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Known forWallis product
Inventing the symbol
Extending Cavalieri's quadrature formula
Coining the term "momentum"[1]
SpouseSusanna Glynde (m. 1645)
Children3, including Anne, Lady Blencowe
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
Institutions
Academic advisorsWilliam Oughtred
Notable studentsWilliam Brouncker

John Wallis (/ˈwɒlɪs/;[2] Latin: Wallisius; 3 December [O.S. 23 November] 1616 – 8 November [O.S. 28 October] 1703) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus.

Between 1643 and 1689 Wallis served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court.[3] He is credited with introducing the symbol ∞ to represent the concept of infinity.[4] He similarly used 1/∞ for an infinitesimal. He was a contemporary of Newton and one of the greatest intellectuals of the early renaissance of mathematics.[5]

  1. ^ Joseph Frederick Scott, The mathematical work of John Wallis (1616-1703), Taylor and Francis, 1938, p. 109.
  2. ^ Random House Dictionary.
  3. ^ Smith, David Eugene (1917). "John Wallis As a Cryptographer". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 24 (2): 82–96. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1917-03015-7. MR 1560009.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference EB1911 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Kearns, D. A. (1958). "John Wallis and complex numbers". The Mathematics Teacher. 51 (5): 373–374. JSTOR 27955680.