33 Facts About Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot, spelled Harriott, Hariot or Heriot, was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator to whom the theory of refraction is attributed.

Thomas Harriot was recognized for his contributions in navigational techniques, working closely with John White to create advanced maps for navigation.

Thomas Harriot is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to the British Isles.

Thomas Harriot invented binary notation and arithmetic several decades before Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, but this remained unknown until the 1920s.

Thomas Harriot learned the Carolina Algonquian language from two Native Americans, Wanchese and Manteo, and could translate it, making him a vital member of the expedition.

Thomas Harriot's name appears in the hall's registry dating from 1577.

Thomas Harriot started to study navigation shortly after receiving a bachelor's degree from Oxford University.

The study of navigation that Thomas Harriot studied concentrated on the idea of the open seas and how to cross to the New World from the Atlantic Ocean.

Thomas Harriot's findings were recorded in the Articon but were later never found.

Thomas Harriot made efforts to communicate with Manteo and Wanchese, two Native Americans who had been brought to England.

Thomas Harriot devised a phonetic alphabet to transcribe their Carolina Algonquian language.

Thomas Harriot's ensuing theory about the close-packing of spheres shows a striking resemblance to atomism and modern atomic theory, which he was later accused of believing.

In 1595 the Duke of Northumberland made property in Durham over to Thomas Harriot, moving him up the social ladder into 'the landed gentry'.

Thomas Harriot himself was interrogated and briefly imprisoned but was released.

Thomas Harriot was buried in the church of St Christopher le Stocks in Threadneedle Street, near where he died.

Thomas Harriot is credited with discovering Girard's theorem, although the formula bears Girard's name as he was the first to publish it.

The first biography of Thomas Harriot was written in 1876 by Henry Stevens of Vermont but not published until 1900 fourteen years after his death.

Interest in Thomas Harriot continued to revive with the convening of a symposium at the University of Delaware in April 1971 with the proceedings published by the Oxford University Press in 1974.

Thomas Harriot's accomplishments remain relatively obscure because he did not publish any of his results and because many of his manuscripts have been lost; those that survive are in the British Museum and in the archives of the Percy family at Petworth House and Alnwick Castle.

Thomas Harriot's drawing made 400 years earlier is believed to be based on the first observations of the Moon through a telescope.

In Deborah Harkness' All Souls Trilogy, Diana Bishop persuades the clockmaker Nicholas Vallin to make and engrave a telescope for Thomas Harriot, recording his unpublished contribution to the science.

Critics, such as Terrie Bloom, accused Thomas Harriot of plagiarizing depictions directly from Galileo's works and argued that Thomas Harriot's representation of the Moon was an inadequate representation that needed to be improved.

Galileo describes the arrangement in a topographical way while Thomas Harriot used cartographical concepts to illustrate his views of the Moon.

Thomas Harriot used a 6X Dutch telescope for his observations of the Moon.

Galileo's astronomical observations regarding the Moon were published in his book Sidereus Nuncius in 1610 and Thomas Harriot's observations were published in 1784 with some not coming to light until 1965.

Thomas Harriot was known to have read and admired the work of Galileo in Sidereus Nuncius.

Thomas Harriot is recognized as the first person to observe sunspots in 1610 with the use of a telescope.

Thomas Harriot observed the sunspot with the use of a telescope in a direct and hazardous way.

The specifics as to how Thomas Harriot's telescope was set up remains largely unknown.

However, it is known that Thomas Harriot used different magnifications of telescopes with 10X and 20X power being used most often.

Thomas Harriot chose to observe the sunspots after sunrise because it made the vertical easier to analyze.

Thomas Harriot's findings challenged the idea of the unchanging heavens by explaining the Sun's axial rotation and provided further support for the heliocentric theory.

Thomas Harriot uses modern mathematical concepts to explain the process behind continuous compounding.