John Napier's Major Accomplishments

John Napier was born in the year 1550, in Edinburgh, Scotland to Sir Archibald Napier of Merchiston Castle and Janet Bothwell, a daughter of a member of Parliament. Because of his heritage, he became the eighth property owner of Merchiston. As a result, Napier did not begin school until the age of thirteen, at St Andrews University. There is little information about the next few years of his life, but many believe that Napier dropped out and travelled in Europe to continue his studies. In 1971, he returned to Scotland and married Elizabeth Stirling, daughter of the Scottish mathematician James Stirling, the following year. John and Elizabeth had two children before Elizabeth died in 1579. Later, Napier married and had ten children with Agnes Chisholm. With the death of his father in 1608, Napier and his family moved into Merchiston Castle, where he stayed for the rest of his days. John Napier died on April 04, 1617 in Edinburgh, Scotland. At Merchiston Castle, John Napier dedicated himself to running his estates. According to “John Napier” (2008), “he became widely known as ‘Marvelous Merchiston’ for the many ingenious mechanisms he built to improve his crops and cattle” (para.5). He created many inventions, including experimentations with fertilizer, devices to measure land, and a device to remove water from flooded coal pits. He also had
“John Napier Discovers Logarithms” (2001) states that, “The primary reason for this is because his tables of logarithms vastly simplified computation” (para. 8). Logarithms have greatly helped mathematicians by speeding up calculations in the pre-calculator days. Mathematicians also found other uses for logarithms and invented other ways to apply them to problems. Although the most people in Napier’s time had no use for such invention, the discovery of logarithms has directly or indirectly affected almost everyone in some