BARON JURIJ VEGA

Jurij Vega was born on 23 of March 1754 in small village Zagorica, 20km from Ljubljana. He was noticed as a talented pupil and sent to study high school in Ljubljana. He graduated in 1775. After five years working as an engineer for river navigation he decided in 1780 to enter military service in Vienna. In his military career he reached the rank of major. Due to his brilliant knowledge of mathematics and due to his personal qualities he was awarded a highest military honor, the order of Maria Theresia and later in 1800 was created a hereditary baron. When he was not on the battle field he worked as a professor for mathematics on the school for artillery officers. He has written the textbooks for mathematics and for physics with an important supplement on geodetic surveying and meteorology. Particularly important was the issue published in 1787 with separate chapter on ballistics. With this text he put the foundation to the ballistic as a science.

Jurij Vega published his first tables of logarithms in 1783. After that he made a grandiose plan for his life work. He wrote a handbook for schools with seven digit calculations (1793), a big complete ten digit tables of logarithms suitable for most demanding scientific calculations (1794) - his most exhausting and most famous work and the tables of logarithms for general calculations (1797). He was calculating the logarithms using his own original equation that was converging faster than the equations used before. The Vega's tables of logarithms were soon translated in almost all European languages and were widely used until they have been replaced by the electronic calculators. His work brought him a membership in several academies of science around the Europe.