Johannes Hudde

Johannes Hudde (23 April 1628 – 15 April 1704) was a mathematician and burgomaster (mayor) of Amsterdam from 1672 to 1703. He also served as governor of the Dutch East India Company. Though he began studying law at the University of Leiden, he later turned to mathematics, influenced by Frans van Schooten.

Hudde made important contributions to mathematics. In his work De reductione aequationum published after his death in 1713, he was the first to treat algebraic coefficients as either positive or negative. He, along with Johan de Witt and Hendrik van Heuraet, added work to the Latin translation of Descartes's La Géométrie. Hudde described a method for simplifying calculations to find double roots of polynomial equations and established what are now called Hudde's rules, which relate to early calculus methods.

As mayor of Amsterdam, Hudde focused on improving the city's water management and hygiene. He ordered that city canals be flushed at high tide and that polluted water be diverted outside the town. He introduced "Hudde's stones," markers showing the summer high water level, which later helped create the NAP, a system used across Europe today to measure water levels.

Mathematical work

Johannes Hudde studied law at the University of Leiden but later turned to mathematics, inspired by his teacher Frans van Schooten. He worked closely with Schooten from 1654 to 1663. During this time, Hudde helped translate a famous book called La Géométrie by René Descartes from French into Latin. In his part of the translation, Hudde shared his own ideas, including rules for solving equations and methods for finding maximum and minimum values.

Hudde also wrote letters and shared ideas with many famous mathematicians, such as Baruch Spinoza, Christiaan Huygens, Johann Bernoulli, Isaac Newton, and Leibniz. His work influenced later developments in mathematics, especially in a field called infinitesimal calculus.