John Keill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Keill
Born	1 Dec 1671 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	31 Aug 1721 Oxford, England
Residence	England
Nationality	Scottish
Fields	Mathematician and astronomer
Institutions	University of Oxford
Alma mater	Edinburgh University Balliol College, Oxford
Doctoral advisor	David Gregory
Doctoral students	Brook Taylor John Theophilus Desaguliers^[1]
Known for	Defending Isaac Newton
Notes He is the brother of physicist James Keill.

John Keill (1 Dec 1671 - 31 Aug 1721) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was primarily a mathematician and important disciple of Isaac Newton. He studied at Edinburgh University, under David Gregory, and obtained his bachelors degree in 1692 with a distinction in physics and mathematics. Keill then attended Balliol College, Oxford obtaining an MA on 2 February 1694.

Keill claimed that Leibniz plagiarized Newton's invention of calculus and he served as Newton's chief defender.However, Newton, himself, eventually grew tired of Keill as he stirred up too much trouble.

In 1715, Keill published a book on trigonometry and logarithms called, Euclides Elementorum Libri Priores Sex. He also wrote on forces between particles and on theories of the origin of the universe. His lectures are published in Leiden, 1725, in a book called Introductio ad Veram.

His marriage in 1717, to Mary Clements, created great scandal at the time as she was from a lower class. The possible attraction to her was that she was 25 years younger.