Robert Simson (14 October 1687 – 1 October 1768) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and professor of mathematics at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

. The Simson line is named after him.Robert Simson
University of Glasgow (multi-tab page)

Life

The eldest son of John Simson of Kirktonhall,

West Kilbride West Kilbride ( gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Iar) is a village and historic parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland, on the west coast by the Firth of Clyde, looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goat Fell and the Isle of Arran. West Kilbride and adjoining ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine, North Ayrshi ...

, Robert Simson was intended for the Church, but the bent of his mind was towards mathematics. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and graduated M.A. When the prospect opened of his succeeding to the mathematical chair at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, Simson proceeded to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for further study. After a year in London, he returned to Glasgow and, in 1711, was appointed by the university to the professorship of mathematics, an office which he retained until 1761. He was succeeded by his pupil Rev Prof James Williamson FRSE (1725-1795).

Works

Simson's contributions to mathematical knowledge took the form of critical editions and commentaries on the works of the ancient

geometer A geometer is a mathematician whose area of study is geometry. Some notable geometers and their main fields of work, chronologically listed, are: 1000 BCE to 1 BCE * Baudhayana (fl. c. 800 BC) – Euclidean geometry, geometric algebra * ...

s. The first of his published writings is a paper in the ''

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'' (1723, vol. xl. p. 330) on

Euclid Euclid (; grc-gre, Εὐκλείδης; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the ''Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of ...

's '' Porisms''. Then followed ''Sectionum conicarum libri V.'' (Edinburgh, 1735), a second edition of which, with additions, appeared in 1750. The first three books of this

treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Treat ...

were translated into English and, several times, printed as ''The Elements of the

Conic Sections In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a s ...

''. In 1749, was published ''Apollonii Pergaei locorum planorum libri II.'', a restoration of Apollonius's lost treatise, founded on the

lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...

s given in the seventh book of Pappus's ''Mathematical Collection''. In 1756, appeared, both in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

and in English, the first edition of his ''

Euclid's Elements The ''Elements'' ( grc, Στοιχεῖα ''Stoikheîa'') is a mathematical treatise consisting of 13 books attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postu ...

''. This work, which contained only the first six and the eleventh and twelfth books, and to which, in its English version, he added the ''Data'' in 1762, was for long the standard text of Euclid in England. After Simson's death, restorations of Apollonius's treatise ''De section determinata'' and of Euclid's treatise ''De Porismatibus'' were printed for private circulation in 1776, at the expense of Earl Stanhope, in a volume with the title ''Roberti Simson opera quaedam reliqua''. The volume contains also dissertations on ''

Logarithms 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 ...

'' and on the ''Limits of Quantities and Ratios'', and a few problems illustrating the ancient geometrical analysis.

Notes

References

External links

* Robert Simson
''The Elements of Euclid''
.. ''Errors Corrected... also The Book of Euclid's Data... Corrected'' 12th ed. (1804)

Simson's line
from Cut-the-Knot
A Scottish sundial erected by Robert Simson at Kirktonhall, West Kilbride.

The Memorial to Robert Simson in West Kilbride
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simson, Robert 1687 births 1768 deaths People from North Ayrshire Scottish mathematicians Alumni of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Glasgow 18th-century Scottish mathematicians 18th-century Scottish people Euclid

Life

Works

Notes

References

Further reading

External links