Decimal fractions and decimal point
Fracciones decimales y separador decimal
- Date
- 1585 · confidence high
- Place
- Leiden, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Simon Stevin (De Thiende, 1585); the decimal point/comma of Napier (1617)
- People
- 👤 Simon Stevin1548–1620
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A notation for fractions as a positional extension of whole numbers, proposed by Stevin and simplified by Napier with a separator mark. It eased commercial, scientific and engineering calculation.
Al-Kashi (Samarkand, 1427) had already used decimal fractions; Stevin popularised them in Europe.
What it led to
- A proposal for decimal weights, measures and currency (the metric system, 1795)
- Simplified accounting and surveying
- Manageable logarithmic and trigonometric tables
Built on
- Hindu-Arabic numerals
- Sexagesimal fractions
Made possible
- Logarithms1614
- Decimal metric system1795
- Mechanical calculators