Adrien Ulacq was a
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
mathematician, best known for his
logarithm
In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 o ...
ic
tables
Table may refer to:
* Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs
* Table (landform), a flat area of land
* Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns
* Table (database), how the table data ...
.
Life
He was originally of Flemish ethnicity from
Gouda, Holland.
Career
In 1628, he modified the logarithmic tables of
Briggs and added more details to them.
He filled up the gap in the numbers between 20,000 and 90,000 in the logarithmic tables.
The logarithmic tables produced by Ulacq proved to be extremely useful for
land surveyors.
Honours
His achievements in logarithms and mathematics have been noted by several authors and sources.
These include the ''
Lexicon Technicum
''Lexicon Technicum: or, Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves'' was in many respects the first alphabetical encyclopedia written in English. Although the emphasis of t ...
''.
It also includes
Diderot's ''
Encyclopédie
''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' (English: ''Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts''), better known as ''Encyclopédie'', was a general encyclopedia publis ...
''.
See also
*
Common logarithm
In mathematics, the common logarithm is the logarithm with base 10. It is also known as the decadic logarithm and as the decimal logarithm, named after its base, or Briggsian logarithm, after Henry Briggs, an English mathematician who pioneered i ...
*
''e'' (mathematical constant)
*
John Napier
John Napier of Merchiston (; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. His Latinized name was Ioann ...
*
Adriaan Vlacq
Adriaan Vlacq (1600–1667) was a Dutch book publisher and author of mathematical tables. Born in Gouda, South Holland, Gouda, Vlacq published a table of logarithms from 1 to 100,000 to 10 decimal places in 1628 in his ''Arithmetica logarith ...
References
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20120525165222/http://mathematics.health-tips-diseases.com/2011/04/logarithm.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulacq, Adrien
17th-century Dutch mathematicians
People from Gouda, South Holland