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All of Hudde's mathematics was done before he began to work for the city council in 1663. Van Schooten edited and published a second two-volume translation of Descartes's La Géométrie (1659-1661) which contained appendices by de Witt, Hudde and van Heuraet.
Hudde worked on maxima and minima and the theory of equations. Hudde gave an ingenious method to find multiple roots of an equation which is essentially the modern method of finding the highest common factor of a polynomial and its derivative.
He was the first to treat the coefficients in algebra without considering whether they were positive or negative in De reductione aequationum. In 1656 he gave the power series expansion of ln(1+x). The following year he directed the flooding of parts of Holland to block the advance of the French army.
Hudde also worked on optics, producing microscopes and constructing telescope lenses.
Hudde corresponded with Huygens on problems of canal maintenance, probability and life expectancy. Leibniz studied Hudde's manuscripts and reported finding many excellent results. The manuscripts must have had an important influence on Leibniz's introduction of the calculus.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
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List of References (7 books/articles)
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| A Poster of Johann Hudde
| Mathematicians born in the same country
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| Cross-references to History Topics | The rise of the calculus |
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JOC/EFR February 1997
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School_of_Mathematics_and_Statistics University_of_St_Andrews,_Scotland |
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Hudde.html
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