William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker

From Wikipedia:

Life[edit]Brouncker was born in Castlelyons, County Cork, the elder son of William Brouncker, 1st Viscount Brouncker and Winifred, daughter of Sir William Leigh of Newnham. His father was created a Viscount in the Peerage of Ireland in 1645 for services to the Crown. Although the first Viscount had fought in the Anglo-Scots war of 1639, malicious gossip said that he paid the then enormous sum of £1200 for the title and was almost ruined as a result; but in any case he died only a few months afterwards.

William obtained a DM at the University of Oxford in 1647. He was one of the founders and the first President of the Royal Society. In 1662, he became Chancellor to Queen Catherine, then head of the Saint Catherine's Hospital.

He was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Navy in 1664 and his career can be traced in the Diary of Samuel Pepys; despite frequent disagreements Pepys on the whole respected Brouncker more than most of his other colleagues.

Brouncker never married but lived for many years with the actress Abigail Williams (much to Pepys' disgust) and left most of his property to her. His title passed to his brother Henry, one of the most detested men of the era.

Works[edit]His mathematical work concerned in particular the calculations of the lengths of the parabola and cycloid, and the quadrature of the hyperbola, which requires approximation of the natural logarithm function by infinite series. He was the first European to solve what is now known as Pell's equation. He was the first in England to take interest in generalized continued fractions and, following the work of John Wallis, he provided development in the generalized continued fraction of pi.

Brouncker's formula[edit]This formula provides a development of π/4 in a generalized continued fraction:

The convergents are related to the Leibniz formula for pi: for instance

and

Because of its slow convergence Brouncker's formula is not useful for practical computations of π.

External links[edit]O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews .

"Brouncker, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.  Check date values in: |date= (help)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brouncker,_2nd_Viscount_Brouncker

William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker, PRS (1620 – 5 April 1684) was an English mathematician.

Life

Brouncker obtained a DM at the University of Oxford in 1647. He was one of the founders and the first President of the Royal Society. In 1662, he became Chancellor to Queen Catherine, then head of the Saint Catherine's Hospital.

He was appointed one of the Commissioners of the Navy in 1664 and his career can be traced in the Diary of Samuel Pepys; despite frequent disagreements Pepys on the whole respected Brouncker more than most of his colleagues. Brouncker never married but lived for many years with the actress Abigail Williams (much to Pepys' disgust) and left most of his property to her. His title passed to his brother Henry, one of the most detested men of the era.

Works

His mathematical work concerned in particular the calculations of the lengths of the parabola and cycloid, and the quadrature of the hyperbola, which requires approximation of the natural logarithm function by infinite series. He was the first European to solve what is now known as Pell's equation. He was the first in England to take interest in generalized continued fractions and, following the work of John Wallis, he provided development in the generalized continued fraction of pi.