William Jones (mathematician)

Sir William Jones (1675 – 3 July 1749) was a Welsh mathematician.

Related Topics:
1675 - 3 July - 1749 - Mathematician

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Jones owed his successful career partly to the patronage of the distinguished Bulkeley family of north Wales, and later to the Earl of Macclesfield.

Related Topics:
Bulkeley - Wales - Earl of Macclesfield

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Jones served at sea, teaching mathematics on board ship between 1695 and 1702. After his voyages were over he became a mathematics teacher in London. He also held a number of posts in government offices.

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As a mathematician, his most noted contribution is his proposal for the use of the symbol π (the Greek letter pi) to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

Related Topics:
Greek - Pi - The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter

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He became a close friend of Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley. In 1712, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was later its Vice-President.

Related Topics:
Isaac Newton - Edmund Halley - 1712 - Royal Society

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Jones published Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos 1706 , a work which was intended for beginners and which included theorem on differential calculus and infinite series.

Related Topics:
Differential calculus - Infinite series

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Navigation was also a topic which interested Jones; his first published work was A New Compendium of the Whole Art of Navigation.

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In 1731 he published Discourses of the Natural Philosophy of the Elements.

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His son, also named William Jones, was a renowned philologist who discovered the Indo-European language group.

Related Topics:
William Jones - Indo-European language

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