John Napier – Biography, History and Inventions

Key Points

• Born to the Scottish nobility, John Napier's early life seems shrouded in mystery for the most part. As a nobleman, he was required to run his estates and dabbled in agriculture with the aim of improving the yield of his fields.
• He was also interested in astronomy, politics, and religion and dedicated his time to instruments of war against the Spanish.
• John Napier is also credited with inventing the term, "logarithm", and describing the decimal point as well as Pascal's Triangle. He also wrote a number of books on his interests.