Johannes Hudde
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Johannes (van Waveren) Hudde (23 April 1628 – 15 April 1704) was a mathematician, burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam between 1672 – 1703, and governor of the Dutch East India Company.
Hudde initially studied law at the University of Leiden, until he turned to mathematics under the influence of Frans van Schooten. He contributed to the theory of equations in his posthumous De reductione aequationum of 1713, in which he was the first to take literal coefficients in algebra as indifferently positive or negative. In the Latin translation that Van Schooten made of Descartes' La Géométrie, Hudde, together with Johan de Witt and Hendrik van Heuraet, published work of their own.[1] Hudde's contribution consisted of describing an algorithm for simplifying the calculations necessary to determine a double root to a polynomial equation.Template:Snf And establishing two properties of polynomial roots known as Hudde's rules, that point toward algorithms of calculus.
As a "burgemeester" of Amsterdam he ordered that the city canals should be flushed at high tide and that the polluted water of the town "secreten" should be diverted to pits outside the town instead of into the canals. He also promoted hygiene in and around the town's water supply. "Hudde's stones" were marker stones that were used to mark the summer high water level at several points in the city. They later were the foundation for the "NAP", the now Europe-wide system for measuring water levels.[2]
Mathematical work
Hudde studied law at the University of Leiden, but turned to mathematics under the influence of his teacher Frans van Schooten. From 1654 to 1663 he worked under van Schooten.
La Géométrie (1637) by René Descartes provided an introduction to analytic geometry in French, whereas Latin was still the international language of science. Schooten and his students including Hudde, Johan de Witt and Hendrik van Heuraet published a Latin translation of La Geometrie in 1659. Each of the students added to the work. Hudde's contribution described Hudde's rules and made a study of maxima and minima. He added to the translation of La Geometrie two papers of his own: Epistola Prima de Reductione Aequationum on algebraic equations, and Epistola Secunda de Maximis et Minimis, in which he described an algorithm for simplifying the calculations necessary to determine a double root to a polynomial equation.Template:Snf Together with René-François de Sluse, Hudde provided general algorithms by which one could routinely construct tangents to curves given by polynomial equations.Template:Snf
Hudde corresponded with Baruch Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens, Johann Bernoulli, Isaac Newton and Leibniz. Newton and Leibniz mention Hudde, and especially Hudde's rule, many times and used some of his ideas in their own work on infinitesimal calculus.
See also
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ J.P.M Kwaad Het Normal Amsterdam Peil (NAP) (Dutch)
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- Karlheinz Haas (1956) "Die mathematischen Arbeiten von Johann Hudde (1628 to 1704) Bürgermeister von Amsterdam", Centaurus 4: 235–84 Script error: No such module "CS1 identifiers".
- J. Hudde (1656) Specilla circularia (circular Lens, in Dutch)
External links
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- Template:PAGENAMEBASE at the Mathematics Genealogy ProjectTemplate:EditAtWikidata
- Pages with script errors
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- 1628 births
- 1704 deaths
- 17th-century Dutch mathematicians
- Mayors of Amsterdam
- Scientists from Amsterdam
- Leiden University alumni
- Administrators of the Dutch East India Company
- Burials at the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
- 17th-century Dutch politicians
- 18th-century Dutch politicians
- People associated with Baruch Spinoza
- Mayors of places in the Dutch Republic