Juan de Ortega (mathematician)
Juan de Ortega (born Palencia, Spain, c. 1480; died c. 1568),[1] was a Spanish mathematician. He wrote some of the earliest works on commercial arithmetic, and discovered an improved method for calculating square roots.
Life[edit]
Very little is known of Ortega's life.[2] He was a member of the Dominican Order in Aragon,[2] and he taught arithmetic and geometry in Spain and Italy.[1]
Mathematical contributions[edit]
For his work on arithmetic Ortega drew on that of Boethius and of 13th-14th century mathematicians.[1]
A widely known[3] publication among Ortega's works was Tratado subtilissimo de Aritmetica y de Geometria ("Most refined treatise on arithmetic and geometry") (Barcelona, 1512). The work was published in Spain, France and Italy, and translated into several languages.[2] The Tratado was innovative[3] in focusing on the practical, in particular commercial, application of arithmetical and geometrical techniques.[2] In later editions[4] this work also introduces a novel approximation method for calculating square roots,[5] which appears to be largely based on the Pell equation and thereby the best available technique,[6] even though no general solution of this equation is known to have been found until much later.[1]
Another textbook by Ortega was Cursus quattuor mathematicarum artium liberalium ("Course of four mathematical arts") (Paris, 1516).[1]
Another textbook by Ortega was "Conpusicion de la arte de la arismetica y juntamente de geometría"[7]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e M A Catala, "Ortega, Juan de", Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
- ^ a b c d David E. Smith (1958). History of Mathematics. Courier Corporation. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-486-20429-1.
- ^ a b Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses (1994). Las relaciones entre Portugal y Castilla en la época de los descubrimientos y la expansión colonial (in Portuguese). Universidad de Salamanca. p. 226. ISBN 978-84-7481-792-8.
- ^ "Biografia de Juan de Ortega" (in Spanish). Biografías y Vidas. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- ^ Edward Smedley (1845). Encyclopædia metropolitana; or, Universal dictionary of knowledge, ed. by E. Smedley, Hugh J. Rose and Henry J. Rose. [With] Plates. p. 436.
- ^ Benito, Manuel; Escribano, Jose Javier; Fernández, Emilio; Sánchez, Mercedes (5 December 2012). "Fray Juan de Ortega's approximations, 500 years after". arXiv:1212.1125 [math.HO].
- ^ Madrid, María José; Maz-Machado, Alexander; León-Mantero, Carmen; López-Esteban, Carmen (December 2017). "Aplicaciones de las Matemáticas a la Vida Diaria en los Libros de Aritmética Españoles del Siglo XVI". Bolema: Boletim de Educação Matemática. 31 (59): 1082–1100. doi:10.1590/1980-4415v31n59a12.
Further reading[edit]
- "Ortega biography". MacTutor archive. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland.
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