Thomas Fincke (6 January 1561 – 24 April 1656) was a Danish

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, and a professor at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

for more than 60 years.

Biography

Thomas Jacobsen Fincke was born in

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish language, Danish and ; ; ) is an independent city, independent town in the far north of the Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. After Kiel and Lübeck, it is the third-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg's ...

Schleswig The Duchy of Schleswig (; ; ; ; ; ) was a duchy in Southern Jutland () covering the area between about 60 km (35 miles) north and 70 km (45 mi) south of the current border between Germany and Denmark. The territory has been di ...

. Fincke was the son of Councillor Jacob Fincke and Anna Thorsmede. He completed his primary schooling at Flensburg. From 1577, he studied mathematics, rhetoric and other philosophical studies for five years at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

. Fincke's lasting achievement is found in his book ''Geometria rotundi'' (1583), in which he introduced the modern names of the

trigonometric function In mathematics, the trigonometric functions (also called circular functions, angle functions or goniometric functions) are real functions which relate an angle of a right-angled triangle to ratios of two side lengths. They are widely used in all ...

tangent In geometry, the tangent line (or simply tangent) to a plane curve at a given point is, intuitively, the straight line that "just touches" the curve at that point. Leibniz defined it as the line through a pair of infinitely close points o ...

and secant. In 1590, he became professor of mathematics at the

. In 1603 he also obtained a professorship in medicine.

Personal life

He was married to Ivaria Jungesdatter Ivers (1574–1614). His son Jacob Fincke (1592–1663) was a professor of physics. His daughters married scientist Caspar Bartholin the Elder (1585–1629), botanist Jørgen Fuiren (1581–1628), historian

Ole Worm Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin ...

(1588–1654) and theologian Hans Brochmand (1594–1630). Hans Brochmand - teolog ''Dansk Biografisk Leksikon'' Retrieved December 1, 2020 Fincke died at Copenhagen and was buried at Vor Frue Kirke.

References

External links

* 1561 births 1656 deaths 16th-century Danish scientists 16th-century Danish educators 17th-century Danish scientists 16th-century Danish mathematicians 17th-century Danish mathematicians Danish mathematicians Danish physicists Science teachers Mathematics writers University of Strasbourg alumni Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen Rectors of the University of Copenhagen People from Flensburg Burials at the Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen {{europe-mathematician-stub