John Napier (1550–April 4, 1617) was a Scottish mathematician, physicist and astronomer. He is virtually all remembered when a discoverer of natural logarithms, of Napier's bones (also known as Napier's rods) and for popularizing the decimal point. He was natural around Merchiston Tower, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Napier is comparatively little known outside mathematical circles in which he manufactured what is doubtless an extremely significant advance in the history of mathematics. Logarithms made calculations by h& much more leisurely and thereby opened a way to several afterwards scientific advances. His operate, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, contained thirty-seven web sites of explanatory matter & 90 places of tables, which facilitated a furtherment of astronomy, dynamics, physics and astrology.

"A number of "secret inventions" were described by his contemporaries, including a round chariot that was an early version of a tank, giant mirrors which could burn the sails of enemy ships, a submarine and an artillery piece that could apparently destroy a whole field of soldiers."

Napier's powers of invention were non confined to log. He published the little treatise in the elementary way to perform multiplication, the Rabdologiae, introducing the calculating device which became known as Napier's Rods or even Napier's Bones. Inside an appendix he explained a second method of multiplication & division using metal plates, which is one of the earliest known tries at a mechanical means of calculation.

A second utile idea of his is Neper's circle (periodically known as Neper's pentagon), the mnemonic for spherical trigonometry.

He is buried within St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh. He was a father of Robert Napier.

Honours
The unit utilized inside telecommunication, the neper, is named when John Napier, when is Napier University in Edinburgh.