Jost Bürgi's method for calculating sines

History of mathematics in the 15th and 16th centuries, Renaissance (01A40) History of mathematics in the 17th century (01A45) Exponential and trigonometric functions (33B10) History of geometry (51-03)

Abstract: For a long time it has been known that in the 16th century the Swiss mathematician Jost B"urgi found a new method for calculating sines, but no information about the details has been available. Recently a manuscript written by B"urgi himself has come to light in which he explains his algorithm. It is totally different from the traditional procedure which was used until the 17th century. In the first part of the article the standard method is explained which was rooted in Greek antiquity with Ptolemy's computation of chords and which was used in the Arabic-Islamic tradition and in the Western European Middle Ages for calculating chords as well as sines. The main part of the article deals with B"urgi's way. By only using additions and halving, his procedure is elementary and it converges quickly. B"urgi does not explain why his method is correct, but in the last part of the article a modern proof for the correctness of his algorithm is provided.

Review text

Jost Bürgi is known for his logarithmic tables \textit{Aritmetische und geometrische Progreß\ Tabulen}, recently edited and commented by \textit{K. Clark} [Jost Bürgi's \textit{Aritmetische und geometrische Progreß Tabulen} (1620). Edition and commentary. Translated from the German. New York, NY: Birkhäuser/Springer (2015; Zbl 1332.01065)], and for his discretion communicating them. ``The hesitant secretive [man] abandoned his child instead of raising it for the general benefit, wrote Kepler in the foreword of his \textit{Tabulae Rudolphinae}, concerning Bürgi's keeping mum (citation from Kathleen Clark, p. 11). Besides logarithms it was known for some time that Bürgi also found a new method to calculate sine tables, called `Kunstweg' (artful way), but the secretive man apparently left no trace of his method. Recently, the first author found an hitherto unknown autograph of Bürgi in a library in Wrocław, Poland. In this autograph, Bürgi explained his `Kunstweg' and the present work is concerned with its explanation.NEWLINENEWLINEIn the first part of the paper, the authors describe the classical method used for the calculation of sine tables stemming from Ptolemaios's \textit{Almagest}. Then, Bürgi's method and the manuscript \textit{Fundamentum astronomiae} in which Bürgi described his `Kunstweg' are discussed in detail. In the third and final part, a modern proof of Bürgi's `Kunstweg' is given.NEWLINENEWLINEThe work under review is not only a great leap forward in the understanding of Bürgi's mathematical skills but also seems to open a fascinating insight into the transmission of the `Kunstweg' into the hands of Henry Briggs. In a copy of Raimarus Ursus's \textit{Fundamentum astronomicum} in the University Library of Leiden, the second author discovered a handwritten difference table very similar to the `Kunstweg' which was signed by Henry Briggs, cp. [Mitt. Dtsch. Math.-Ver. 24, No. 2, 89--94 (2016; Zbl 1417.01007), photograph on p. 92]. Hence, it may well be that the `Kunstweg' came into Briggs's hands (presumably through John Dee) and may therefore have had a great influence on the difference method which Henry Briggs used later to calculate his tables of logarithms.

Recommendations

Cited in

(12)

This page was built for publication: Jost Bürgi's method for calculating sines

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q286028)