On Mar 1, 2015, at 7:51 PM, Adam P. Goucher <apgoucher@gmx.com> wrote:
John Napier was Scottish, rather than French.
Yes, and for that matter I can't even find any suggestion that Napier worked in base e. And natural logarithm in French appears to actually be "logarithme naturel" instead of what I wrote. While googling about this, I came across some comments by Europeans who said they learned that ln is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase (approximately) logarithmum naturalis. Maybe the origin of ln notation is in doubt, but I'm pretty sure how it became widespread in the U.S. and maybe the world: The calculus book by George B. Thomas was the number one calculus book used in college and high school courses for many years*. It is used all over the world. That book probably helped popularize the ln notation more than any other. --Dan _________________________ * The first edition came out in 1952, it's now in its 13th edition. Of course it has been overshadowed by other books in recent years, especially those by James Stewart.
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2015 at 3:16 AM From: "Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net>
I thought "ln" was invented by the French, maybe even Napier, standing for logarithme naturale.
On Mar 1, 2015, at 4:33 PM, Victor S. Miller <victorsmiller@gmail.com> wrote: . . . Some mathematicians disapprove of this notation [ln for log_e]. In his 1985 autobiography, Paul Halmos criticized what he considered the "childish ln notation," which he said no mathematician had ever used.[13] The notation was invented by Irving Stringham, a mathematician.[14][15]