Christen Sorensen was born in Jutland, Denmark back in 1562. His father died when he was eight. An uncle took charge of him educating him at Lemvig. This only lasted three years due to him being sent back to his mother who needed him to help her work the fields.
She agreed to let him study during the winter months however in 1577 he ran away to Viborg to continue his studies. In 1588, you would find him working as an assistant at the astronomical observatory in Uraniborg. He worked there for eight years, continuing his education taking a master’s degree at Rostock. In 1605, he was a professor at the University of Copenhagen. In 1607, he was elected chair of the mathematics department. He held that position until his death in 1647.
Now enough background about Christen Sorensen Longomontanus. It was what he did in those years that will forever place him in the history book of the world. In 1622, he improved on Tycho Brach’s geoheliocentric model of the astronomical tables. His found a mathematical formula about refraction better known as “squaring the circle”. The challenge was constructing a square with the same area as a given circle by using a finite number of steps with a compass and straightedge. His mathematical formula was finding the square roof off 18252 with gives 3.14185 (or 22/7). To date no-one has ever demonstrated they were more accurate than Christen in the formula he came up with several hundreds of years earlier. Recognize his formula???
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