Math & science · 1614

Logarithms

Napier turns multiplication into addition, cutting astronomers' work dramatically.

John Napier's tables and Henry Briggs' base-10 version of 1617 transformed calculation. Laplace said they doubled astronomers' lives, and they powered the slide rule for 350 years.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Decimal fractions 1585
Algebra 820

What it led to 3

Napier's bones 1617
Slide rule 1622
Difference engine 1822

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Computation per constant dollar, 1850-2006 Latest: 7.3B million units of computer power per 2006 $ (2003) Source: Nordhaus 2007, Two Centuries of Productivity Growth in Computing, J. Econ. Hist. 67(1), Table 6