#VERA CIRCULI ET HYPERBOLAE QUADRATURA SERIES#

In the Optica Promota, published in 1663, Gregory described his design for a reflecting telescope, the ' Gregorian telescope'. Vera circuli et hyperbolae quadratura, 1667 Optica Promota He died a few days later at the age of 36. He was the grandfather of John Gregory (FRS 1756) uncle of David Gregorie (FRS 1692) and brother of David Gregory (1627–1720), a physician and inventor.Ībout a year after assuming the Chair of Mathematics at Edinburgh, James Gregory suffered a stroke while viewing the moons of Jupiter with his students. He had married Mary, daughter of George Jameson, painter, and widow of John Burnet of Elrick, Aberdeen their son James was Professor of Physics at King's College, Aberdeen. He was successively professor at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. There at the University of St Andrews, he laid the first meridian line across the floor of his lab in 1673, which was 200 years prior to the Greenwich Meridian being established, and thus 'arguably making St Andrews the place where time began'. Upon his return to London in 1668 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, before travelling to St Andrews in late 1668 to take up his post as the first Regius Professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews, a position created for him by Charles II, probably upon the request of Robert Moray. At Padua he lived in the house of his countryman James Caddenhead, the professor of philosophy, and he was taught by Stefano Angeli. In 1664 he departed for the University of Padua, in the Venetian Republic, passing through Flanders, Paris and Rome on his way. In 1663 he went to London, meeting John Collins and fellow Scot Robert Moray, one of the founders of the Royal Society. He attended Aberdeen Grammar School, and then Marischal College from 1653–1657, graduating AM in 1657. After his father's death in 1651 his elder brother David took over responsibility for his education. It was his mother who endowed Gregory with his appetite for geometry, her uncle – Alexander Anderson (1582–1619) – having been a pupil and editor of French mathematician Viète. His mother Janet was the daughter of Jean and David Anderson and his father was John Gregory, an Episcopalian Church of Scotland minister, James was youngest of their three children and he was born in the manse at Drumoak, Aberdeenshire, and was initially educated at home by his mother, Janet Anderson (~1600–1668). In his book Geometriae Pars Universalis (1668) 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.

#VERA CIRCULI ET HYPERBOLAE QUADRATURA SERIES#

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. His surname is sometimes spelt as Gregorie, the original Scottish spelling. He died at the age of 37 shortly after going blind.James Gregory FRS (November 1638 – October 1675) was a Scottish mathematician and astronomer. Andrews (1669–74) and the University of Edinburgh (1674–75). Gregory held chairs in mathematics at the University of St. However, he was unable to find anyone skilled enough actually to construct the telescope. He solved the problem of the observer by having a hole in the primary mirror through which the light could pass to the observer.

His solution was to use a concave mirror that reflected (rather than a lens that refracted) to minimize these effects. He realized that refracting telescopes would always be limited by aberrations of various kinds. He anticipated Newton by recommending a reflecting telescope in his Optica promota (1663 The Advance of Optics). In addition to his mathematical work Gregory's interests in astronomy led him to do some valuable practical work in optics. Gregory also gave the first proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus. He introduced the terms ‘convergent’ and ‘divergent’ for series, and was one of the first mathematicians to begin to grasp the difference between the two kinds. It was Gregory who first found series expressions for the trigonometric functions.

He was particularly interested in expressing functions as series, and he sketched the beginnings of a general theory. Gregory was one of the many 17th-century mathematicians who made important contributions to the development of the calculus, although some of his best work remained virtually unknown until long after his death.īorn at Drumoak, Scotland, he studied mathematics at the University of Padua in about 1665 and produced Vera circuli et hyperbolae quadratura (1667 The True Areas of Circles and Hyperbolas). (1638–1675) Scottish mathematician and astronomer