Trigonometry In Viete's Trigonometria

In the early 17th century names like Francois Viete and Bartholomeo Pitiscus were still ringing through the mathematical community’s ears. Viete had blown everyone away with his book Canon Mathematicus in 1579. The book contained a collection of trigonometric formulas and tables. Viete was also responsible for trisecting an angle and the construction of the regular pentagon. Bartholomeo Pitiscus had coined the term trigonometry in the title of his 1595 book, Trigonometria. This book was split into five parts on spherical and plane geometry. In 1609, a mathematician named Johann Kepler achieved the first major accomplishment of the century. Using planetary observations, Kepler devised the first two laws of planetary motion. In proving the second law, Kepler used an infinite number of triangles each with a vertex at the sun. He used a form of integral calculus, as we know it today. Again in 1614, the mathematical community was baffled by John Napier’s “invention” of logarithmic functions. It was later discovered that Jobst Bürgi had developed logarithms first however, he failed to publish his work first. Blaise Pascal, born in 1623 to Antoinette and Etienne Pascal. From a very early age Pascal showed an interest in math just like his skilled father. Due to Etienne Pascal’s unconventional …show more content…
The problems were related to calculating the probability of certain events. For example, if he threw two dices twenty four times, what was the probability of rolling two fours? Another question posed by Gombaud was the division off the stakes problem. The general problem was stated as such: If a game is ended before it was completed then how should the players divide up the stakes? By conversing with Pierre de Fermat, Pascal was able to solve both of these problems in gambling as well as many others. These solutions are the basis of modern probability and statistics