- British mathematician,
theologian, and classicist. His Lectiones geometricae 1670 contains
the essence of the theory of calculus, which was later expanded by
Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.
Barrow was born in London and studied at Cambridge, where he was professor
of mathematics 1663-69. Isaac Newton attended his lectures and was
inspired by Barrow's work in the field of optics. To Barrow is due
the credit for two original contributions: the method of finding the
point of refraction at a plane interface, and his point construction
of the diacaustic of a spherical interface.
Barrow's mathematical importance is slight, the Lectiones Mathematicae
1669 being marred by his insistence that algebra be separated from
geometry and his desire to relegate algebra to a subsidiary branch
of logic.
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