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Napier's bones is a manually operated calculating device created by John Napier of Merchiston, Scotland for the calculation of products and quotients of numbers. The method was based on lattice multiplication, and also called rabdology, a word invented by Napier. Napier published his version in 1617. [1]
John Napier of Merchiston (/ ˈ n eɪ p i ər / NAY-pee-ər; [1] Latinized as Ioannes Neper; 1 February 1550 – 4 April 1617), nicknamed Marvellous Merchiston, was a Scottish landowner known as a mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He was the 8th Laird of Merchiston. John Napier is best known as the discoverer of logarithms.
The first device, which by then was already popularly used and known as Napier's bones, was a set of rods inscribed with the multiplication table. Napier coined the word rabdology (from Greek ῥάβδος [rhabdos], rod and λόγoς [logos] calculation or reckoning) to describe this technique. The rods were used to multiply, divide and even ...
Binary notation had not yet been standardized, so Napier used what he called location numerals to represent binary numbers. Napier's system uses sign-value notation to represent numbers; it uses successive letters from the Latin alphabet to represent successive powers of two: a = 2 0 = 1, b = 2 1 = 2, c = 2 2 = 4, d = 2 3 = 8, e = 2 4 = 16 and so on.
The promptuary, also known as the card abacus is a calculating machine invented by the 16th-century Scottish mathematician John Napier and described in his book Rabdologiae [1] in which he also described Napier's bones. It is an extension of Napier's Bones, using two sets of rods to achieve multi-digit multiplication without the need to write ...
Scotsman John Napier reinvented a form of logarithms and an ingenious system of movable rods (1617, referred to as Napier's Rods or Napier's bones). These rods were based on the lattice or gelosia multiplication algorithm and allowed the operator to multiply, divide, and calculate square and cube roots by moving the rods around and placing them ...
He also invented Napier's bones, a multiplication tool using a set of numbered rods. Napier used some of his mathematical talents for theology, as he used the Book of Revelation to predict the Apocalypse, in A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John, which he regarded as his most important work.
The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, shortly after John Napier's publication of the concept of the logarithm. Edmund Gunter of Oxford developed a calculating device with a single logarithmic scale; with additional measuring tools it could be used to multiply and divide.