Person: Simpson, Thomas
Thomas Simpson was an English mathematician who is best remembered for his work on interpolation and numerical methods of integration.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Thomas received little formal education.
- From about 1725, when Simpson was fifteen years old, until around 1733, he taught mathematics in Nuneaton.
- Simpson was the most distinguished of a group of itinerant lecturers who taught in the London coffee houses.
- For example De Moivre used Slaughter's Coffee House in St Martin's Lane as a base during these years, and William Jones, who was a friend of Simpson, was able to make a living lecturing in coffee houses such as Child's Coffee House in St Paul's Churchyard.
- In 1743 Simpson was appointed as the head of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.
- This Academy was founded only two years before Simpson took up the post and his appointment there had an impact on the mathematical topics he investigated.
- Two years after his appointment, Simpson was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
- Simpson is best remembered for his work on interpolation and numerical methods of integration.
- However the numerical method known today as "Simpson's rule", although it did appear in his work, was something he learned from Newton as Simpson himself acknowledged.
- Much of Simpson's work in this area was based on earlier work of De Moivre.
- Simpson published Mathematical Dissertations in 1743 which discussed the attraction of the solid obtained by rotating an ellipse around one of its axes.
- Problems in astronomy such as the precession of the equinoxes were discussed by Simpson in Miscellaneous Tracts (1757).
- Simpson's attempt at an analytical solution is interpreted.
- It would be fair to note that others described Simpson's conduct as irreproachable.
Born 20 August 1710, Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England. Died 14 May 1761, Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Astronomy, Origin England
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
