Simon Stevin

The Flemish mathematician and military engineer Simon Stevin was active in many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical. The Dutch word for mathematics, wiskunde or 'the art of what is certain', was Stevin's own translation and makes Dutch one of the few European languages where 'mathematics' is not derived from Greek via Latin. He invented a carriage with sails which was propelled solely by the force of wind, and acquired a speed which exceeded that of horses. De Thiende, written by Stevin and published in 1585 is translated in English as 'Decimal arithmetic: Teaching how to perform all computations whatsoever by whole numbers without fractions, by the four principles of common arithmetic: namely, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.'.