Condensed History of Logarithms

By dstolz14
  • 250 BCE

    Greek Origins

    Archimedes lays foundation of logarithms using base 100,000,000.

  • Napier Presents Logarithms

    John Napier introduces logarithms in A Description of the Wonderful Table of Logarithms using a correspondence between geometric and arithmetic progressions.

  • Briggs Spreads Logarithms

    Henry Briggs continues the work of Napier spreading the idea of logarithms across Europe.

  • Burgi Introduces Logarithms

    Independent of Napier, Joost Burgi introduces logarithms in Arithmetic and Geometric Progression. Burgi included no terminology, just referred to black numbers and red numbers from his tables from the color of the ink.

  • Gunther Finds Logs of Sines

    Edmund Gunther, a friend of Briggs, discover logarithms for sines and tangents.

  • Mercator Names Natural Logarithms

    Nicholas Mercator uses logarithms to the base e which he calls natural logarithms.

  • Further Developments by Wallis

    in Algebra, John Wallis further develops the theory of logarithms.

  • Bernoulli/Leibniz Discussions

    In a letter to Gottfried Leibniz, John Bernoulli discusses logarithms.

  • Leibniz Declaration

    Gottfried Leibniz declares that -1 has no logarithm.

  • Gardiner Redefines Logarithms

    William Gardiner defines logarithms in Tables of Logarithms as power of 10 but gives credit to William Jones.

  • Euler Validation

    Leonhard Euler supports views of logarithms put forth by Gardiner.