Napier's Bones

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Napier’s Bones (or Napier’s Rods) was created by Jhone Napier (or more commonly known as John Napier). He was born in Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1550 and died on April 4, 1617 in Edinburgh, Scotland at the age of 67. He was attended St. Andrew’s University when he was 13 in 1563. It was there that Napier began his study in Theology and became a famous Theologian. He was raised there by the principal of the university, John Rutherford. Napier was always striving for the most effective solutions , no matter what it pertained to. As a Theologian, he accused the pope of being the Anti-Christ and began studying the book of Revelation and coming to conclusion that the world was going to end in either 1688 or 1700. He published his most important work is, The Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John. There are no existing records or explanations of how John Napier actually became a mathematician. It is thought that he may have studied at The University of Paris. He published Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John in 1593 which he considered to be his most important work. John Napier became famous for founding exponential expressions for trigonometric functions, and introduced the decimal notation for fractions. But perhaps his most famous creation, was that which is called Napier's Bones (or Napier's Rods). Napier's Bones (Rods) contains a set of ten bones (rods), nine of which display the multiples of a given number between one and nine. It was used for mechanical multiplying and dividing. Below is a step-by-step process of how Napier's Bones (Rods) works. Napier’s Bones- Steps Step 1- Draw a column of 1-9 along the left side vertically. Step 2- Take a number that you would like to use to multiply and write it along the top above the 1 column going horizontally. Step 3- Create blank

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