15 Facts About Pedro Nunes

Pedro Nunes was a Portuguese mathematician, cosmographer, and professor, probably from a New Christian family.

Pedro Nunes was the first to propose the idea of a loxodrome, and was the inventor of several measuring devices, including the nonius, named after his Latin surname.

Little is known about Pedro Nunes' early education, life or family background, only that he was born in Alcacer do Sal, his origins are possibly Jewish and that his grandchildren spent a few years behind bars after they were accused by the Portuguese Inquisition of professing and secretly practicing Judaism.

Pedro Nunes continued his medical studies but held various teaching posts within the University of Lisbon, including Moral, Philosophy, Logic and Metaphysics.

Years later Pedro Nunes was charged with the education of the king's grandson, and future king, Sebastian.

Pedro Nunes lived in a transition period, during which science was changing from valuing theoretical knowledge, to providing experimental data, both as a source of information and as a method of confirming theories.

Pedro Nunes was the first to understand why a ship maintaining a steady course would not travel along a great circle, the shortest path between two points on Earth, but would instead follow a spiral course, called a loxodrome.

Pedro Nunes solved the problem of finding the day with the shortest twilight duration, for any given position, and its duration.

The achievement shows that Pedro Nunes was a pioneer in solving maxima and minima problems, which became a common requirement only in the next century using differential calculus.

Pedro Nunes was probably the last major mathematician to make relevant improvements to the ptolemaic system.

Pedro Nunes knew Copernicus' work but referred only briefly to it in his published works, with the purpose of correcting some mathematical errors.

Pedro Nunes worked on several practical nautical problems concerning course correction as well as attempting to develop more accurate devices to determine a ship's position.

Pedro Nunes created the nonius to improve instrument accuracy.

Pedro Nunes worked on some mechanics problems, from a mathematical point of view.

Pedro Nunes translated, commented and expanded some of the major works in his field, and he published original research.