Isaac Greenwood
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{{Infobox scientist
| name = Isaac Greenwood
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1702|05|11}}
| birth_place = Boston,{{Cite web |url=http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2573358?n=14097 |title=Harvard Library |access-date=26 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140322001927/http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/2573358?n=14097 |archive-date=22 March 2014 |url-status=dead }} Province of Massachusetts Bay
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1745|10|22|1702|05|11}}
| death_place = Charleston, Province of South Carolina
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| citizenship =
| nationality = American Colonies
| fields = Mathematics
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| alma_mater = Harvard College
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors = Thomas Robie, John Theophilus Desaguliers
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| notable_students =
| known_for = Greenwood Book (1729),
short scale value of billion
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| awards = Hollisian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
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Isaac Greenwood (11 May 1702 – 22 October 1745) was an American mathematician. He was the first Hollisian Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard College.{{cite web |url=http://www.math.harvard.edu/history/timeline/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040821192043/http://www.math.harvard.edu/history/timeline/index.html |archive-date=21 August 2004 |title=Mathematics Department History Timeline}}
Biography
He graduated at Harvard in 1721, and was instrumental in the smallpox inoculation controversy of that year, speaking out in favour of inoculation. He travelled to London, where he lodged with John Theophilus Desaguliers and attended his lectures on Newtonian Experimental Philosophy. He later introduced the subject in the American Colonies and his book An Experimental Course of Mechanical Philosophy, published in Boston in 1726, owed much to Desaguliers. In London Greenwood met with Thomas Hollis, who wished to endow a chair at Harvard College for him. Hollis later fell out with Greenwood, over his financial imprudence. However, back in Boston, Greenwood was eventually appointed to the new Hollis Chair in 1727.{{citation needed|date= October 2023}}
During his tenure, he wrote anonymously the first natively-published American book on mathematics – the Greenwood Book, published in 1729.{{cite journal|author=Smith, D. E.|authorlink=David Eugene Smith|title=The first work on mathematics printed in the New World|journal=The American Mathematical Monthly|volume=28|date=February 1921|issue=1|pages=10–15|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044102896305;view=1up;seq=20|doi=10.2307/2974202|jstor=2974202|url-access=subscription}} This book made the first published statement of the short scale value for billion in the United States, which eventually became the value used in most English-speaking countries.[https://books.google.com/books?id=uTytJGnTf1kC&dq=origins%20of%20number%20names%20billion%20-wikipedia&pg=PA84 History of Mathematics Volume II] (1925, republished 1953) by David Eugene Smith, pp. 84–86
Greenwood married Sara Shrimpton Clarke, daughter of Dr John Clarke, on 31 July 1729, and had five children, of whom the eldest, Isaac, became a noted dentist.
He was removed from the chair for intemperance in 1737. Unable to support his family, he joined the Royal Navy as a chaplain aboard {{HMS|Rose|1740|6}} in 1742, transferring to {{HMS|Aldborough|1743|6}} in 1744. He was released from service in Charleston, South Carolina, on 22 May 1744 and died from the effects of alcohol on 22 October 1745.{{cite journal | last =Leonard | first =David C. | title =Harvard's First Science Professor: A Sketch of Isaac Greenwood's Life and Work | journal =Harvard Library Bulletin | volume =29 | issue =2 | page =162 | publisher =Harvard University | location =Cambridge, Massachusetts | date =April 1981 | pmid =11615865 | url =http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:139076?n=14124 | accessdate =29 November 2014}}
References
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{{succession box
| before=none
| title=Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
| years=1727-1737
| after=John Winthrop
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{{Hollisian Professors of Mathematics}}
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Category:Mathematicians from Boston
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Harvard University Department of Mathematics faculty
Category:Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy