Jurij Vega | |
|---|---|
 Vega in an 1802 illustration | |
| Born | Jurij Bartolomej Vega (1754-03-23)March 23, 1754 |
| Died | September 26, 1802(1802-09-26) (aged 48) |
| Education | Jesuit College of Ljubljana (Jezuitski kolegij v Ljubljani [sl]) (1767–1773)[1] |
| Alma mater | LjubljanaLyceum (Licej v Ljubljani) (1773–1775; diploma, 1775)[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Academy of Practical Sciences in Mainz |
| Academic advisors | Gabriel Gruber[1] Joseph Giuseppe Jakob von Maffei[1] |
| Notable students | Ignaz Lindner [sl][1] |
BaronJurij Bartolomej Vega (also spelledVeha;Latin:Georgius Bartholomaei Vecha;German:Georg Freiherr von Vega; born Vehovec, March 23, 1754 – September 26, 1802) was aSlovenemathematician,physicist, andartillerycommissioned officer.
Born into a farmer's family[2] in the small village ofZagorica, east ofLjubljana in present-daySlovenia, Jurij Vega was six years old when his father, Jernej Veha, died.
He was first educated in Moravče and then attended high school for six years (1767–1773) at theJesuit College in Ljubljana (Jezuitski kolegij v Ljubljani [sl]), where he studied Latin,Greek,religion, German,history,geography,science, andmathematics. At the time, the college had around 500 students. He was a schoolmate ofAnton Tomaž Linhart, the Slovenian writer and historian.
Vega completed high school in 1773 at the age of 19. Afterward, he studied at theLyceum of Ljubljana (Licej v Ljubljani) and became a navigational engineer in 1775. A copy of hisTentamen philosophicum—a list of questions for his comprehensive examination—has been preserved and is housed in the Mathematical Library in Ljubljana. The problems include topics inlogic,algebra,metaphysics,geometry,trigonometry,geodesy,stereometry, thegeometry ofcurves,ballistics, and general and specialphysics.
Vega left Ljubljana five years after graduating and entered military service in 1780, becoming a professor of mathematics at the Artillery School in Vienna. Around this time, he began using the surnameVega instead of his original surname,Veha.
At the age of 33, Vega married Josefa Svoboda (also spelled Jožefa Swoboda) (1771–1800), a Czech noblewoman fromČeské Budějovice, who was 16 years old at the time.
Vega participated in several military campaigns. In 1788, he served under Austrian Imperial Field MarshalErnst Gideon von Laudon (1717–1790) in a campaign against theOttoman Empire atBelgrade. His command of severalmortar batteries significantly contributed to the fall of the Belgrade fortress.
Between 1793 and 1797, he fought againstFrench Revolutionary forces under the command of Austrian GeneralDagobert-Sigismond de Wurmser (1724–1797) as part of the European coalition allied with Austria. Vega participated in battles atFort Louis,Mannheim,Mainz,Wiesbaden,Kehl, andDiez.
In 1795, he designed two 30-pound (14 kg) mortars with conically drilled bases and larger charges, increasing their firing range to up to 3,000 metres (3,300 yards). By comparison, the older 60-pound (27 kg) mortars had a range of only 1,800 metres (2,000 yards).
In September 1802, Vega was reported missing. After a few days, his body was found. A police report concluded that his death was accidental. It is believed that he died on 26 September 1802 inNußdorf, a district along theDanube, nearVienna, the capital ofAustria.
Vega published a series of books containinglogarithmic tables. The first volume appeared in 1783. Much later, in 1797, it was followed by a second volume that included a collection of integrals and other useful formulae. HisHandbook, originally published in 1793, was later translated into several languages and issued in over 100 editions.
His most significant work wasThesaurus Logarithmorum Completus (Treasury of All Logarithms), first published in 1794 inLeipzig (its 90th edition appeared in 1924). Although based on the tables ofAdriaan Vlacq, Vega's version corrected numerous errors and extended the logarithms of trigonometric functions for small angles. An engineer, Franc Allmer, an honorary senator of theGraz University of Technology, discovered a copy of Vega's 10-digit logarithmic tables in the Museum ofCarl Friedrich Gauss inGöttingen. Gauss frequently used Vega's tables and even wrote calculations in the margins. He also found and marked some errors in the millions of values Vega had calculated.
A copy ofThesaurus Logarithmorum Completus from the private collection of mathematician and computing pioneerCharles Babbage (1791–1871) is preserved at theRoyal Observatory, Edinburgh.
Over the years, Vega also wrote a four-volume textbook titledVorlesungen über die Mathematik (Lectures on Mathematics).[3] Volume I was published in 1782 when Vega was 28 years old, followed by Volume II in 1784, Volume III in 1788, and Volume IV in 1800. These textbooks include valuable tables; for example, Volume II containsclosed-form expressions for the sines of multiples of 3 degrees, presented in a user-friendly format.
Vega also authored at least six scientific papers. On August 20, 1789, he set a world record by calculatingpi to 140 decimal places, of which the first 126 were correct.[4] He submitted this calculation to theRussian Academy of Sciences inSaint Petersburg in his bookletV. razprava (The Fifth Discussion), in which he identified an error at the 113th decimal place in the previous best estimate byThomas Fantet de Lagny (1660–1734), which had claimed 127 digits. Vega's record held for 52 years, until 1841, and his method remains notable to this day. The academy published his result only in 1795, six years after submission.Vega improved uponJohn Machin's 1706 formula:
with his own formula, equivalent to one used byLeonhard Euler in 1755:
which converges faster than Machin's version. He also cross-checked his results usingCharles Hutton’s formula:[5]
Vega only developed the second term of the series once in his calculations.
Although he made contributions toballistics,physics, andastronomy, his most enduring legacy lies in the field of mathematics during the second half of the 18th century.
In 1781, Vega advocated for the adoption of the decimalmetric system of units within the AustrianHabsburg monarchy. While his proposal was not accepted at the time, the system was officially introduced later under EmperorFranz Joseph I in 1871.
Vega was a member of several scholarly societies, including theAcademy of Practical Sciences in Mainz, the Physical and Mathematical Society ofErfurt, the Bohemian Scientific Society inPrague, and thePrussian Academy of Sciences inBerlin. He was also an associate member of the British Scientific Society inGöttingen. On May 11, 1796, he was awarded the Order ofMaria Theresa, and in 1800 he was granted the title of hereditary baron, along with the right to a personal coat of arms.
Jurij Vega High School (Gimnazija Jurija Vege) inIdrija was founded in 1901 as the first SloveneRealschule.
In 1935, theVega (crater) on the Moon was named in his honor. In March 1993, the National Bank of Slovenia issued a 50tolar banknote featuring Jurij Vega.[6] TheSlovenian Post also issued a commemorative stamp in his honor in 1994. In 2004, Slovenia released commemorative coins marking the 250th anniversary of Vega's birth.[7]
Theasteroid14966 Jurijvega, discovered on July 30, 1997, was named after him. Slovenia's Vega Astronomical Society[8] is named in honor of both Jurij Vega and the starVega. However, the star Vega is not named after Jurij Vega; its name predates him by centuries.
A free, open-source physics library for 3D deformable object simulation, Vega FEM, is also named after Jurij Vega.
Vega is also notable for being the tutor and academic advisor ofIgnaz Lindner,[1] resulting in a notablescientific genealogy (seeAcademic genealogy of theoretical physicists: Jurij Vega).
Sandifer, Ed (2006)."Why 140 Digits of Pi Matter"(PDF).Southern Connecticut State University. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2012-02-04.
