Gottfried Leibniz Facts
Gottfried Leibniz Facts
|
| Interesting Gottfried Leibniz Facts: |
|---|
| Leibniz developed the study of calculus, wholly independently of the similar work of Sir Isaac Newton. |
| His mathematical notation was well received and has been used extensively ever since its original publication. |
| In the 20th century, Leibniz's Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity met mathematical implementation. |
| He went on to become one of the most productive inventors of mechanical calculators, inventing both the pinwheel calculator and the Leibniz wheel. |
| The Leibniz wheel was used in the arithmometer, which was the first real, mass-produced mechanical calculator. |
| Leibniz also restructured the binary number system, the system which forms the basis of nearly all computer code. |
| Along with two other philosophers, René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, Leibniz was one of the greatest 17th century advocates of rationalism. |
| Leibniz anticipated some of the more modern ideas in thought and philosophy, while still staying true to his scholastic roots. |
| After his father's untimely death when Leibniz was only six, he inherited his father's extensive library and derived the basis for much of his philosophical reasoning from this reading material. |
| He was a strong supporter of applying reason to principles and definitions rather than to empirical evidence. |
| Leibniz's contributions to the massive spectrum of scientific fields which he contributed to came from the tens of thousands of letters and unpublished works he penned, typically in Latin, French, and German, but also in several other languages. |
| Due to this volume of writings, there is no single definitive collection of his writings. |
| Leibniz actually left college with a doctorate in law, and spent many years as a legal advisor and diplomat before eventually ending up in Paris. |
| While there, he met noted mathematicians and physicists, and realized that his knowledge of their studies was lacking. |
| He began teaching himself the higher concepts in mathematics and science, and kept up a friendship with Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld, the leading French philosophers of the day. |
| Leibniz also taught himself from the writings of Descartes and Pascal, and became friends with the German mathematician Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. |
| Leibniz was granted an honorary membership as a foreigner into the French Academy of Sciences in 1675. |
| While working as a diplomat again in England, he met with the Royal Society to demonstrate his calculating machine, which he'd begun creating in 1670. |
| His calculator easily functioned with the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), for which the Royal Society made him a member. |
|
Related Links: Facts Scientists Facts Animals Facts |