Mathematician:Roger Cotes

Mathematician

English mathematician, who worked closely with Isaac Newton by proofreading the second edition of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica before publication.

Invented the quadrature formulas known as Newton-Cotes Formulas.

First introduced in $1714$ what is known today as Euler's Formula, in the form $\map \ln {\cos \theta + i \sin \theta} = i \theta$.

Introduced the concept of the radian.

Died tragically young of a fever.

Nationality

English

History

• Born: 10 July 1682 in Burbage, Leicestershire, England
• Died: 5 June 1716 in Cambridge, England

Theorems

• Newton-Cotes Rule (with Isaac Newton) (also known as Newton-Cotes Formulas)

• Cotes's Spiral

Results named for Roger Cotes can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Roger Cotes can be found here.

Publications

• March 1714: Logometria
• 1722: Harmonia Mensurarum (his collected papers, assembled after his death)
• 1738: Hydrostatical and Pneumatical Lectures (his collected lectures on experimental physics)

Critical View

... if he had lived we might have known something.

-- Isaac Newton

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Roger Cotes": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cotes, Roger (1682-1716)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Cotes, Roger (1682-1716)