In mathematics when "x" is used as shorthand
for "multiply" thank Sir William Oughtred. He was rector of the
Surrey village of Albury from 1603 to his death in 1660. A Fellow of Kings
College Cambridge he taught mathematics free to anyone interested in the
subject. One of his many students was Christopher Wren, the acclaimed architect
of St Paul's Cathedral. He authored mathematics text books and these had other
familiar terms such as Sin and Cos for the first time. His books were used by
scientists such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle.
Sir William Oughtred's greatest contribution to STEM
however, was to invent the Slide Rule. Four hundred years ago this year John
Napier invented Logarithms making mathematical problems easier to solve. Using
this, Oughtred inscribed logarithmic scales on two sliding wooden strips
creating a powerful and simple calculating device. A slide rule is about the
size of a ruler. By sliding the scales and aligning your numbers quick
calculations can be made. Until the introduction of computers the slide rule
was a fundamental science and engineering instrument. A slide rule needs no
electricity or software and because of their simplicity were used by NASA as
computer backup for the Apollo moon programme. Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin
took his slide rule with him to the moon and in 2007 it famously auctioned for
$77,675.
So if you visit Albury remember that it was here, four
hundred years ago, some of our common mathematical symbols were defined and a
device invented that flew to the moon!
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