Johann van Waveren Hudde

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Johannes van Waveren Hudde

Johann van Waveren Hudde (April 23, 1628 - April 15, 1704) was Mayor of Amsterdam 1672-1703 and a Dutch mathematician.

As a "burgemeester" of Amsterdam he ordered that the city canals should be flushed at high tide and that the polluted water of the town "secreten" should be diverted to pits outside the town instead of into the canals. He also promoted hygiene in and around the town's water supply.

"Huddes stones" were marker stones that were used to mark the summer high waterlevel at several points in the city. They later were the foundation for the "NAP", the now Europe-wide system for measuring waterlevels.

[edit] Mathemetician

Johannes Hudde studied law in Leiden, but turned to maths under the influence of his teacher Frans van Schooten. From 1654 to 1663 he worked under van Schooten and with his fellow students Johan de Witt and Hendrik van Heuraet they translated Descartes's La Géométrie into Latin. Each of the students added to the work. Hudde's contribution consisted of a study on maxima and minima and a theory of equations.

Hudde corresponded with Baruch Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens, Johann Bernoulli, Isaac Newton and Leibniz. Newton and Leibniz mention Hudde many times and used some of his work in their own work on calculus.