William Oughtred
Mathematician, Academic
1575 – 1660
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Who was William Oughtred?
William Oughtred was an English mathematician.
After John Napier invented logarithms, and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales upon which slide rules are based, it was Oughtred who first used two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division; and he is credited as the inventor of the slide rule in 1622. Oughtred also introduced the "×" symbol for multiplication as well as the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the sine and cosine functions.
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- Born
- Mar 5, 1575
Eton - Also known as
- William divisions
- William O'Grady
- Religion
- Anglicanism
- Nationality
- England
- Profession
- Education
- King's College, Cambridge
- Eton College
- Died
- Jun 30, 1660
Albury
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"William Oughtred." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/william_oughtred>.
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