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vernier

(Encyclopedia)vernier vûrˈnēr [key], auxiliary scale, either straight or an arc of a circle, designed to slide along a fixed scale. Its unit divisions, usually smaller than those on the fixed scale, permit a far...

D'Alembert's principle

(Encyclopedia)D'Alembert's principle dălˈəmbârzˌ [key], in mechanics, principle permitting the reduction of a problem in dynamics to one in statics. This is accomplished by introducing a fictitious force equal...

Poncelet, Jean Victor

(Encyclopedia)Poncelet, Jean Victor zhäNˈ vēktôrˈ pôNslāˈ [key], 1788–1867, French mathematician and army engineer. He taught at the school of mechanics at Metz and at the Faculté des Sciences and the É...

Jungius, Joachim

(Encyclopedia)Jungius, Joachim yōˈäkhĭm yo͝ongˈēo͝os [key], 1587–1657, German mathematician, logician, and systematizer of natural history. In 1608 he made his inaugural dissertation at the Univ. of Giess...

Briggs, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Briggs, Henry, 1561–1630, English mathematician. He was the first professor of geometry at Gresham College, London (1596–1619), and Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford (from 1619). After pub...

Philomena of Dacia, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Philomena of Dacia, Peter, or Peter Nightingale, fl. 1291–1303, Danish astronomer and mathematician. He taught at the Univ. of Bologna (1291–92) and in Paris, and was a canon of Roskilde Cathedral...

Benedetti, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Benedetti, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēsˈtä bānādĕtˈtē [key], 1530–90, Italian mathematician and physicist. An important forerunner of Galileo, Benedetti had diverse interests, inc...

Cecco d'Ascoli

(Encyclopedia)Cecco d'Ascoli chĕkˈkō däsˈkōlē [key], 1269?–1327, Italian astrologer, mathematician, poet, and physician, whose real name was Francesco degli Stabili, b. Ascoli. A teacher of astrology at se...

Bowditch, Nathaniel

(Encyclopedia)Bowditch, Nathaniel, 1773–1838, American navigator and mathematician, b. Salem, Mass. He had no formal schooling after the age of 10. In 1795 he went to sea, and on five long voyages he carried out ...

axiom

(Encyclopedia)axiom, in mathematics and logic, general statement accepted without proof as the basis for logically deducing other statements (theorems). Examples of axioms used widely in mathematics are those relat...