John Napier · 1614
Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio
- Language
- Latin
- Form
- Treatise
- Text
- Full text
- English
- Period translation · Edward Wright, 1616
- Source text
- archive.org
- Wikidata
- Q107644956
- Selected
- Ben Breen, 2026-09-29; suggested by Claude research agents, 29 Sep 2026
- Status
- Arguments unverified; quotations chosen by machine, unchecked
Q24DEPENDENCE
Does using calculating devices weaken the ability to calculate without them?No. it relieves tedium and error. Logarithms spare calculators the tedium of long multiplications and divisions and the slippery errors they cause.
Seeing there is nothing (right well beloved Students in the Mathematickes) that is so troublesome to Mathematicall practise, nor that doth more molest and hinder Calculators, then the Multiplications, Divisions, square and cubical Extractions of great numbers, which besides the tedious expence of time, are for the most part subiect to many slippery errors, I began therefore to consider in my minde, by what certaine and ready Art I might remove those hindrances. And having thought upon many things to this purpose, I found at length some excellent briefe rules to be treated of (perhaps) hereafter. But amongst all, none more profitable then this, which together with the hard and tedious Multiplications,
OCR corrected
Preface · Confirmed via MacTutor and Wikidata; Internet Archive scan of 1614 ed. listed.