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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.

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.

During his tenure, he wrote anonymously the first natively-published American book on mathematics – the Greenwood Book, published in 1729. 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.

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 in 1742, transferring to HMS Aldborough 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.

References

1. ^ "Harvard Library". Archived from the original on 22 March 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
2. "Mathematics Department History Timeline". Archived from the original on 21 August 2004.
3. Smith, D. E. (February 1921). "The first work on mathematics printed in the New World". The American Mathematical Monthly. 28 (1): 10–15. doi:10.2307/2974202. JSTOR 2974202.
4. History of Mathematics Volume II (1925, republished 1953) by David Eugene Smith, pp. 84–86
5. Leonard, David C. (April 1981). "Harvard's First Science Professor: A Sketch of Isaac Greenwood's Life and Work". Harvard Library Bulletin. 29 (2). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University: 162. PMID 11615865. Retrieved 29 November 2014.

• 1702 births
• 1745 deaths
• People from Boston
• Harvard College alumni
• Harvard University Department of Mathematics faculty
• Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
• 18th-century American mathematicians
• Royal Navy chaplains
• Alcohol-related deaths in South Carolina