Stevin, Simon

Stevin, Simon (sē`môn stəvīn`), 1548–1620, Dutch engineer and mathematician. His experiments in hydrostatics showed that the pressure exerted by a liquid is dependent only on its vertical height and not on the shape of the liquid's container, and demonstrated the principle of the hydraulic press. He probably anticipated Galileo's experiments with falling bodies. Stevin is also credited with the introduction of decimals into common usage.

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Stevin, Simon

(born 1548, Bruges, Flanders—died 1620, The Hague, Holland) Flemish mathematician. In 1585 Stevin published a small pamphlet, La Thiende (“The Tenth”), in which he presented an account of decimal fractions and their daily use. Though he did not invent decimal fractions and his notation was clumsy, he established the use of decimals in day-to-day mathematics.