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WILLEBRORD See also:SNELL (1591-1626)
, commonly known as SNELLIUS, Dutch astronomer and mathematician, was See also:born at See also:Leiden in 1591
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In 1613 he succeeded his See also:father See also:Rudolph See also:Snell (1546–1613) as See also:professor of See also:mathematics in the university of Leiden
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In 1615 he planned and carried into practice a new method of finding the dimensions of the See also:earth, by determining the distance of one point on its See also:surface from the parallel of another, by means of a triangulation
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His See also:work Eratosthenes Batavus, published in 1617, describes the method and gives as the result of his operations between See also:Alkmaar and See also:Bergen-op-Zoom a degree of the See also:meridian equal to 55,100 toises= 117,449 yds
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(A later recalculation gave 57,033 toises =121,569 yds., after the application of some corrections to the See also:measures indicated by himself.) Snell also distinguished himself as a mathematician, and discovered the See also:law of See also:refraction, 'in 1621 (see See also:LIGHT)
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He died at Leiden on the 3oth of See also:October 1626
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In addition to the Eratosthenes Batavus he published Cyclometria sive de circuli dimen,.ione (1621), and Tiphys Batavus s
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Histiodromice, de navium cursibus et re navali (1624)
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He also edited Coeli et siderum in eo errantium observationes Hassiacae (1618), containing the astronomical observations of See also:Landgrave See also: |
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Snell was born in 1580 rather than 1591. He was 46 at the time of his death on 30 October 1626, so that rather proves the point. ; )
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