William Brouncker (2nd Viscount Brouncker)

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Wikipedia

William Brouncker
The 2nd Viscount Brouncker (1620-1684)
Born	1620 Castlelyons, Ireland
Died	5 April 1684 (aged 64) Westminster, London, England
Residence	England
Fields	Mathematician
Institutions	Saint Catherine's Hospital
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Doctoral advisor	John Wallis
Known for	Brouncker's formula

William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker, FRS (1620 – 5 April 1684) was an English mathematician.

Brouncker obtained a Ph.D at the University of Oxford in 1647. He was one of the founders and the second President of the Royal Society. In 1662, he became Chancellor to Queen Catherine, then chief of the Saint Catherine's Hospital. His mathematical work concerned in particular the calculations of the lengths of the parabola and cycloid, and the quadrature of the hyperbola, which requires approximation of the natural logarithm function by infinite series. He was the first in England to take interest in generalised continued fractions and, following the work of John Wallis, he provided development in the generalised continued fraction of pi.

[edit] Brouncker's formula

This formula provides a development in generalized continued fraction of π:

$\frac4{\pi}= 1+1^2 / (2+3^2 / (2+5^2 / (2+7^2 / (2+9^2 / (2+11^2 / (2+13^2 / (2+15^2 / (2+17^2 / (2+\cdots$ .

[edit] External links

O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by William Brouncker	Viscount Brouncker 1645–1684	Succeeded by Henry Brouncker

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Annotations

N Nix on Fri 29 Apr 2005, 12:35am. Flag this

Brouncker was the first president of the Royal Society. Though he was trained as a physician, he was best noted for his work in mathematics.

An extensive biography appears at

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Brouncker.html
N Cumgranissalis on Sun 14 Aug 2005, 03:08am. Flag this

Brouncher [Brounchar] second Vicount, excellent Mathematitian [per J. Evelyn]
N language hat on Sun 14 Aug 2005, 09:14pm. Flag this

L&M Companion says:

“As an administrator he was active in all branches of the Board’s work, but took a special interest in finance and accounts… His relations with Pepys fluctuated, but were at bottom good. They had common interests in music and science, and despite occasional quarrels over competition for contractors’ favours, came to respect each other’s ability. ‘The truth is,’ Pepys wrote (25 Aug. 1668), ‘he is the best man of them all.’
N Thomas Brunkard on Tue 1 Nov 2005, 10:17pm. Flag this

Brouncker and Brounchar are also phonetic spellings of Brunkard. William is frequently confused with his younger brother Henry due to Henry’s inheriting of his elder brother’s title.

Henry suffers from some bad press in Pepy’s so be careful not to confuse them as some other online resources and certain new books about The Royal Society have.

Here is a link to an excellent potrait of William Brunkard, 2nd Viscount:

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp00587&rNo=0&role=sit

And one to the ersthwile Henry Brunkard, 3rd Viscount:

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp00588&rNo=0&role=sit

Here are some records from the British House of Commons on the brothers during the civil war.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/results.asp?query1=Brunkard&title=110

The following link pints to a short biography that fills out some additional information on the pair.

http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/zingaz/LondonPeopleA.html#brouncker

I am researching a biography of the three Viscount Brunkard’s at the moment that I will publish online at http://www.brunkard.com in time. Any additional information anyone can add to help in its composition is appreciated.

References in the diary

A graph of all the references in the diary

1662: Apr: 28
Aug: 13
Sep: 5
1664: Aug: 10
Nov: 18, 19
Dec: 10, 12
1665: Jan: 2, 11, 21
Feb: 11, 15, 18, 21
Mar: 20
Apr: 6, 10, 12
May: 1, 5
Jun: 7
Jul: 6, 13, 25
Aug: 5, 8, 10, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28
Sep: 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26
Oct: 2, 12, 23, 28
Nov: 1, 16, 18, 19, 26
Dec: 3, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 31
1666: Jan: 2, 4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 18, 22, 24, 28, 29
Feb: 1, 5, 8, 11, 14, 21
Mar: 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 19, 21, 26
Apr: 5, 7, 11, 12, 21, 22, 23
May: 1, 2, 11, 23
Jun: 4, 6, 7, 27