| Term Paper Title | John Wallis |
| # of Words | 680 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) | 2.72 |
John Wallis
John Wallis was born on November 23, 1616 in Ashford, Kent,
England.When Wallis moved from his school in Ashford to Tenterden, he
showed his potential for the first time as a scholar. In 1630 he went to Felted
where he became proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He later went to
Emanual College Cambridge and became first interested in mathematics.
Because nobody at Cambridge at this time could direct his mathematical
studies, his main topic of study became divinity and was ordained in 1640.
During the Civil War, Wallis was so skilled in cryptograghy that he
decoded a Royalist message for the Parliamentarians. Because of this, it was
suggested that he was appointed to the Savilian Chair of geometry at Oxford
in 1649. The then holder of the chair, Peter Turner, was dismissed and
Wallis held the chair for over 50 years until his death.
In London there was a group that was interested in natural and
experimental sceince that Wallis was a part of. The group became the Royal
Society and Wallis is a founder member and one of its first Fellows.
Wallis greatley contributed to the beginning of calculus and the most
influentail English mathematician before Newton. He studied the works of
Kepler, Cavalieri, Roberval, Torricelli, and Descartes. He then went to
introduce ideas of the calculus going beyond that of these other authors.
In Arithmetica infinitorum, around 1656, Wallis evaluated the integral
of (1-x2)n from 0 to 1 for integral values of n, building off of Cavalieri's
method of indivisibles. In an attempt to compute the integral of (1-x) from 0
to 1, he devised a method of interpolation. While using Kepler's concept of
continuity he discovered methods to evaluate integrals that were later used by
Newton in his work on the binomial theorem.
Wallis also established the formula
3.14/2=(2.2.4.4.6.6.8.8.10...)/(1.3.3.5.5.7.7.9.9...)
During 1656 Wallis described the curves that are obtained as cross
sections by cutting a cone with a plane as properi...Read entire document
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