Isaac Barrow was an English Christian theologian and mathematician who is generally given credit for his early role in the development of infinitesimal calculus; in particular, for proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus.
17 Facts About Isaac Barrow
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Isaac Barrow's work centered on the properties of the tangent; Barrow was the first to calculate the tangents of the kappa curve.
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Isaac Barrow is notable for being the inaugural holder of the prestigious Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics, a post later held by his student, Isaac Newton.
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In 1624, Thomas married Ann, daughter of William Buggin of North Cray, Kent and their son Isaac was born in 1630.
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Isaac Barrow went to school first at Charterhouse, and subsequently to Felsted School, where he settled and learned under the brilliant puritan Headmaster Martin Holbeach who ten years previously had educated John Wallis.
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Isaac Barrow took to hard study, distinguishing himself in classics and mathematics; after taking his degree in 1648, he was elected to a fellowship in 1649.
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Isaac Barrow received an MA from Cambridge in 1652 as a student of James Duport; he then resided for a few years in college, and became candidate for the Greek Professorship at Cambridge, but in 1655 having refused to sign the Engagement to uphold the Commonwealth, he obtained travel grants to go abroad.
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Isaac Barrow spent the next four years travelling across France, Italy, Smyrna and Constantinople, and after many adventures returned to England in 1659.
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Isaac Barrow is described as "low in stature, lean, and of a pale complexion," slovenly in his dress, and having a committed and long-standing habit of tobacco use.
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Isaac Barrow was an altogether impressive personage of the time, having lived a blameless life in which he exercised his conduct with due care and conscientiousness.
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About this time, Isaac Barrow composed his Expositions of the Creed, The Lord's Prayer, Decalogue, and Sacraments.
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Isaac Barrow was made a Doctor of Divinity by Royal mandate in 1670, and two years later Master of Trinity College, where he founded the library, and held the post until his death.
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Isaac Barrow's earliest work was a complete edition of the Elements of Euclid, which he issued in Latin in 1655, and in English in 1660; in 1657 he published an edition of the Data.
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Isaac Barrow's lectures, delivered in 1664,1665, and 1666, were published in 1683 under the title Lectiones Mathematicae; these are mostly on the metaphysical basis for mathematical truths.
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Isaac Barrow worked out a few of the easier properties of thin lenses, and considerably simplified the Cartesian explanation of the rainbow.
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Isaac Barrow was the first to find the integral of the secant function in closed form, thereby proving a conjecture that was well-known at the time.
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Isaac Barrow died unmarried in London at the early age of 46, and was buried at Westminster Abbey.