Jurij Vega

Jurij Vega
Vega in an 1802 illustration
Born	Jurij Bartolomej Vega (1754-03-23)March 23, 1754 Zagorica pri Dolskem,Habsburg monarchy,Holy Roman Empire(nowSlovenia)
Died	September 26, 1802(1802-09-26)(aged 48) NußdorfnearVienna,Archduchy of Austria
Education	JesuitCollege of Ljubljana (Jezuitski kolegij v Ljubljani) (1767–1773)
Alma mater	LjubljanaLyceum (Licej v Ljubljani) (1773–1775;diploma,1775)
Scientific career
Institutions	Academy of Practical Sciences in Mainz
Academic advisors	Gabriel Gruber Joseph Giuseppe Jakob von Maffei
Notable students	Ignaz Lindner

BaronJurij Bartolomej Vega(alsoVeha;Latin:Georgius Bartholomaei Vecha;German:Georg Freiherr von Vega;bornVehovec,March 23, 1754 – September 26, 1802) was aSlovenemathematician,physicistandartilleryofficer.

Early life

Jurij Vega's birth place

Plaque on house

Born to a farmer's familyin the small village ofZagoricaeast ofLjubljanainSlovenia,Vega was 6 years old when his father Jernej Veha died. Vega was educated first in Moravče and later attended high school for six years (1767–1773) in Ljubljana (theJesuitCollege of Ljubljana,Jezuitski kolegij v Ljubljani), studying Latin,Greek,religion,German,history,geography,science,andmathematics.At that time there were about 500 students there. He was a schoolfellow ofAnton Tomaž Linhart,a Slovenian writer and historian. Vega finished high school when he was 19, in 1773. After completing his studies at theLyceumof Ljubljana (Licej v Ljubljani) he became a navigational engineer in 1775.Tentamen philosophicum,a list of questions for his comprehensive examination, was preserved and is available in the Mathematical Library in Ljubljana. The problems coverlogic,algebra,metaphysics,geometry,trigonometry,geodesy,stereometry,geometryofcurves,ballistics,and general and specialphysics.

Military service

Vega left Ljubljana five years after graduation and entered military service in 1780 as a professor of mathematics at the Artillery School in Vienna. At that time he started to sign his last name asVegaand no longerVeha.When Vega was 33 he married Josefa Svoboda (Jožefa Swoboda) (1771–1800), aCzechnoble fromČeské Budějovicewho was 16 at that time.

Vega participated in several wars. In 1788 he served under Austrian Imperial Field-MarshalErnst Gideon von Laudon(1717–1790) in a campaign against theTurksatBelgrade.His command of severalmortarbatteries contributed considerably to the fall of the Belgrade fortress. Between 1793 and 1797 he foughtFrench Revolutionariesunder the command of Austrian GeneralDagobert-Sigismond de Wurmser(1724–1797) with the European coalition on the Austrian side. He fought atFort Louis,Mannheim,Mainz,Wiesbaden,Kehl,andDietz.In 1795 he had two 30-pound (14 kilogram) mortars cast, with conically drilled bases and a greater charge, for a firing range up to 3000 metres (3300 yards). The old 60 lb (27 kg) mortars had a range of only 1800 m (2000 yd).

In September 1802 Vega was reported missing. After a few days' search his body was found. The police report concluded that his death was an accident. It is believed that he died on 26 September 1802 inNußdorfon theDanube,near theAustriancapital,Vienna.

Mathematical accomplishments

"Tabula logarithmorum vulgarium", 1797

Vega published a series of books oflogarithmtables. The first one appeared in 1783. Much later, in 1797 it was followed by a second volume that contained a collection of integrals and other useful formulae. HisHandbook,which was originally published in 1793, was later translated into several languages and appeared in over 100 issues. His major work wasThesaurus Logarithmorum Completus(Treasury of all Logarithms) that was first published 1794 inLeipzig(its 90th edition was published in 1924). Thismathematical tablewas actually based onAdriaan Vlacq's tables, but corrected a number of errors and extended the logarithms of trigonometric functions for the small angles. An engineer, Franc Allmer, honourable senator of theGraz University of Technology,has found Vega's logarithmic tables with 10decimalplaces in the Museum of Carl Friedrich Gauss inGöttingen.Gaussused this work frequently and he has written in it several calculations. Gauss has also found some of Vega's errors in the calculations in the range of numbers, of which there are more than a million. A copy of Vega'sThesaurusbelonging to the private collection of the British mathematician and computing pioneerCharles Babbage(1791–1871) is preserved at theRoyal Observatory, Edinburgh.

Over the years Vega wrote a four-volume textbookVorlesungen über die Mathematik(Lectures about Mathematics).Volume Iappeared in 1782 when he was 28 years old,Volume IIin 1784,Volume IIIin 1788 andVolume IVin 1800. His textbooks also contain interesting tables: for instance, inVolume IIone can findclosed form expressions for sines of multiples of 3 degrees,written in a form easy to work with.

Vega wrote at least six scientific papers. On August 20, 1789 Vega achieved a world record when he calculatedpito 140 places, of which the first 126 were correct.This calculation he proposed to theRussian Academy of SciencesinSaint Petersburgin the bookletV. razprava (The fifth discussion),where he had found with his calculating method an error on the 113th place from the estimation ofThomas Fantet de Lagny(1660–1734) from 1719 of 127 places. Vega retained his record 52 years until 1841 and his method is mentioned still today. His article was not published by the Academy until six years later, in 1795. Vega had improvedJohn Machin's formula from 1706:

${\pi \over 4}=4\arctan \left({1 \over 5}\right)-\arctan \left({1 \over 239}\right)$

with his formula, which is equal toEuler'sformula from 1755:

${\pi \over 4}=5\arctan \left({1 \over 7}\right)+2\arctan \left({3 \over 79}\right)\;,$

and which converges faster than Machin's formula. He had checked his result with the similar Hutton's formula:

${\pi \over 4}=2\arctan \left({1 \over 3}\right)+\arctan \left({1 \over 7}\right)\;.$

He had developed the second term in the series only once.

Although he worked in the subjects ofballistics,physicsandastronomy,his major contributions are to the mathematics of the second half of the 18th century.

In 1781 Vega tried to push further his idea in the AustrianHabsburg monarchyabout the usage of the decimalmetric systemof units. His idea was not accepted, but it was introduced later under the emperorFranz Josef Iin 1871.

Vega was a member of theAcademy of Practical Sciences in Mainz,the Physical and Mathematical Society ofErfurt,the Bohemian Scientific Society inPrague,and the Prussian Academy of Sciences inBerlin.He was also an associate member of the British Scientific Society inGöttingen.He was awarded the Order ofMaria Theresaon May 11, 1796. In 1800 Vega obtained a title of hereditary baron including the right to his own coat of arms.

Legacy

Jurij Vega High School(Gimnazija Jurija Vege) inIdrijawas founded in 1901 as the first SloveneRealschule.In 1935,Vega (crater)on the Moon was named after Vega. The National Bank of Slovenia put into circulation a 50tolarbanknote in his honour in March 1993,and theSlovene Post Officeissued a stamp honouring Vega in 1994. In 2004 Slovenia issued coins commemorating his 250th birthday.Theasteroid14966 Jurijvega,discovered on July 30, 1997, is named after him.Slovenia's Vega Astronomical Societyis named after both Jurij Vega and the starVega.The star, however, isnotnamed after Jurij Vega and its name is much older. A free open-source physics library for 3D deformable object simulation, Vega FEM, has also been named after Vega.

Scientific genealogy

Vega is also notable as the tutor and academic advisor ofIgnaz Lindner,resulting in a notablescientific genealogy(see Academic genealogy of theoretical physicists: Jurij Vega).

External links

• Jurij Vega on the Slovenian 50 Tolars banknote.
• Georg Freiherr von VegaatMacTutor History of Mathematics archive
• Vega and his time
• Vega FEM library