#simon stevin

Simon Stevin – Scientist of the Day

Simon Stevin, a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and engineer, was born in Bruges in 1548 and died in 1620; we have no exact birth or death dates.

Wetenschapspopularisator Hans de Rijk – beter bekend als Bruno Ernst – overleden

Hans de Rijk (links) naast de Vlaamse astronoom Marcel Minnaert, tijdens de opening van Volkssterrenwacht Simon Stevin in 1961. Credit: Sterrenwacht Tivoli Deze week is Hans de Rijk overleden, de wetenschapspopularisator die we beter kennen onder z’n pseudoniem, Bruno Ernst. De Rijk was een natuurkundige, leraar wis- en natuurkunde en kosmografie, publicist en zoals gezegd…

Wetenschapspopularisator Hans de Rijk – beter bekend als Bruno Ernst – overleden

Hans de Rijk (links) naast de Vlaamse astronoom Marcel Minnaert, tijdens de opening van Volkssterrenwacht Simon Stevin in 1961. Credit: Sterrenwacht Tivoli Deze week is Hans de Rijk overleden, de wetenschapspopularisator die we beter kennen onder z’n pseudoniem, Bruno Ernst. De Rijk was een natuurkundige, leraar wis- en natuurkunde en kosmografie, publicist en zoals gezegd…

This is a translation of an article that appeared in the December 1998 issue of Pythagoras. It is second in a series of six on words in mathematics.

Long into the 17th century Latin was the language of science. Simon Stevin introduced Dutch as a scientific language. Because there were for many notions no Dutch words available he invented many new words himself.

Most languages have, basically, the same word for mathematics: mathematique, Mathematik, matematikk.

All those words derive from the Greek word μαθηματικη. The Dutch language is an exception: we have the word wiskunde, which we have Simon Stevin (born in 1548 in Bruges) to thank for. Stevin thought the Dutch was eminently suited for science. He worked very hard to find suitable Dutch words for as many notions as possible. The word `wisconst' was already in use in his days (end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century). Stevin added many others such as `brantsne', `everedich', `houckmaet', `keghelsne', `lanckrondt', `meetconst', `noemer', `scherphouck' and `werf'.

To be sure

`Wisconst' is an old form of the present `wiskunde', which means mathematics. The `wis' in both words means `certain' or `sure'. The `const' and `kunde' can be taken to mean `art'. Thus wiskunde is the art of being certain. We achieve that `being certain' by proving every claim that we make. Those familiar with Dutch mathematical usage will recognize some of the words above:

everedich - evenredig - proportional

keghelsne - kegelsnede - conic section

meetconst - meetkunde - geometry

noemer - denominator

scherphouck - scherpe hoek - acute angle

stomphouck - stompe hoek - obtuse angle

Parabola, times

Other words look, even to Dutch eyes, less familiar; apparently they have not stood the test of time. The word `brantsne' (burning section) meant parabola. This is actually a nice term, because when you catch the sunlight in a parabolic mirror you can concentrate the heat of the sun in the focus (Dutch: brandpunt, `burning point').

If you look a bit longer at `lanckrondt' then you may recognize `lang' (long) and `rond' (round); the word refers to an ellipse. The word `werf' is a bit more difficult, the modern Dutch meaning can be shipyard or `area around ones house'. However, there is a word `driewerf', which means `three times', so that we see that `werf' does indeed means `times'. In Dutch you can use `keer' or `maal' for times; but the latter used to mean `divided by': Stevin translated the Latin quotiens (divided by) into `mael' or `soomenichmael' (roughly `as often as'). Finally `houckmaet' sounds like `hoekmaat', which would mean angle-measure, but Stevin used it to denote the sine of the angle, a bit ambiguous to modern ears.

Nederlands is zo ongeveer de enige taal waarin wiskunde een eigen naam heeft en die geen variant op mathematica is. Dat danken we aan Simon Stevin die vond dat alles het best in het Nederlands uitgedrukt kan worden.