21
Sep 16

Why and How Explanations of Multiplication and Exponentiation became Infected.

Strangely, I have had to correct the translations of many scholars, who you might think would be a little more rigorous than the facts reveal. Just as Euclid never wrote ‘added to itself’ in his multiplication definition, bar Hiyya, Jordanus and Tropfke, never wrote ‘added to itself’. Yet such is the power of BV1570, scholars felt compelled to substitute the words of haberdasher Henry Billingsley for the words of great mathematical minds. Similarly, the writings on Euclid’s multiplication definition by Isaac Barrow and Christian Wolff were correct, yet scholars inserted Billingsley’s added to itself phrase into their translations.

Henry Billingsley's invented ‘Multiplicand added to itself multiplier times’ multiplication definition, has falsely been attributed to the 11th Century mathematician, Abraham bar Hiyya ha-Nasi, born in Barcelona, Spain, and the 13th Century mathematician, Jordanus de Nemore, whose writings were popular in France.

Similarly, the correct writings of Isaac Barrow, Christian Wolfius (as he was known in England) and even Isaac Newton were all infected by the bad 16th Century idea of a London haberdasher, Henry Billingsley.

Please click the link below to read the original Hebrew, Latin and German of mathematical masters, BEFORE and AFTER such explanations became infected with BV1570. The link further below reveals about half the explanations of exponentiation are also infected with BV1570.