John William Wrench, Jr. (October 13, 1911 – February 27, 2009) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

who worked primarily in

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods ...

. He was a pioneer in using computers for mathematical calculations, and is noted for work done with

Daniel Shanks Daniel Shanks (January 17, 1917 – September 6, 1996) was an American mathematician who worked primarily in numerical analysis and number theory. He was the first person to compute π to 100,000 decimal places. Life and education Shanks was b ...

to calculate the mathematical constant pi to 100,000 decimal places.

Life and education

Wrench was born on October 13, 1911, in

Westfield, New York Westfield is a town in the western part of Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 4,513 at the 2020 census. Westfield is also the name of a village within the town, containing 65% of the town's population. This unique to ...

, and grew up in

Hamburg, New York Hamburg is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 56,936. It is named after the city of Hamburg, Germany. The town is on the western border of the county and is south of Buffalo. Ham ...

. He received a BA summa cum laude in mathematics in 1933 and an MA in mathematics in 1935, both from the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...

. He received his PhD in mathematics in 1938 from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. His thesis was titled ''The derivation of arctangent relations''. Wrench died on February 27, 2009, of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

Career

Wrench started his career teaching at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

, but switched to doing research for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. His specialty for the Navy was developing high-speed computational methods, and he was a pioneer in using computers for mathematical calculations. He worked on projects involving underwater sound waves,

underwater explosion An underwater explosion (also known as an UNDEX) is a chemical or nuclear explosion that occurs under the surface of a body of water. While useful in anti-ship and submarine warfare, underwater bombs are not as effective against coastal facilities. ...

s, structural design, hydrodynamics,

aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dy ...

, and data analysis. He became deputy head of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory at the Navy's

David Taylor Model Basin The David Taylor Model Basin (DTMB) is one of the largest ship model basins—test facilities for the development of ship design—in the world. DTMB is a field activity of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Hist ...

in 1953, and retired in 1974 as the head of the laboratory. He also had academic appointments at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, and American University. Wrench had a particular interest in computing the decimal digits of π, and performed some lengthy calculations even before the availability of computers. During the period 1945–1956 Wrench and Levi B. Smith used a desk calculator to produce more and more digits of π, ending with 1160 places. In 1961 Wrench and

used an

IBM 7090 The IBM 7090 is a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computer that was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 is the fourth member of the IBM 700/7000 se ...

computer to calculate π to 100,000 digits. Harry Polachek had a printout of the 100,000 digits specially bound, inscribed in gold letters, and donated to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. Wrench also calculated a number of other mathematical constants to high precision, for example the

Euler–Mascheroni constant Euler's constant (sometimes also called the Euler–Mascheroni constant) is a mathematical constant usually denoted by the lowercase Greek letter gamma (). It is defined as the limiting difference between the harmonic series and the natural l ...

γ to 328 decimal places and

Khinchin's constant In number theory, Aleksandr Yakovlevich Khinchin proved that for almost all real numbers ''x'', coefficients ''a'i'' of the continued fraction expansion of ''x'' have a finite geometric mean that is independent of the value of ''x'' and is kno ...

to 65 places. He was at one time the editor of the ''Journal of Mathematics of Computation''. Wrench was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

. He published more than 150 scientific papers.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wrench, John William, Jr. 1911 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians Numerical analysts United States Navy civilians University at Buffalo alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Wesleyan University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Westfield, New York People from Hamburg, New York Mathematicians from New York (state)