Willebrord Snellius

Willebrord Snellius
Willebrord Snel van Royen (1580–1626)
Born	13 June 1580 Leiden, Dutch Republic
Died	30 October 1626(1626-10-30) (aged 46) Leiden, Dutch Republic
Nationality	Dutch
Fields	Astronomer and mathematician
Institutions	University of Leiden
Alma mater	University of Leiden
Academic advisors	Ludolph van Ceulen Rudolph Snellius
Notable students	Jacobus Golius
Known for	Snell's law

Willebrord Snellius (born Willebrord Snel van Royen) (13 June 1580 – 30 October 1626) was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician, known in the English-speaking world as Snell. In the west, especially the English speaking countries, his name has been attached to the law of refraction of light for several centuries, but it is now known that this law was already known to Ibn Sahl in 984. The same law was also investigated by Ptolemy and in the Middle Ages by Witelo, but due to lack of adequate mathematical instruments (trigonometric functions) their results were saved as tables, not functions.

The lunar crater Snellius is named after Willebrord Snellius. The Royal Netherlands Navy has named three survey ships after Snellius, including a currently-serving vessel.

Willebrord Snellius was born in Leiden, Netherlands. In 1613 he succeeded his father, Rudolph Snel van Royen (1546–1613) as professor of mathematics at the University of Leiden.

In 1615 Snellius, after the work of Eratosthenes in Ptolemaic Egypt in the 3rd century BC, probably was the first to try to do a large scale experiment to measure the circumference of the earth using triangulation. He was helped in his measurements by two of his students, the Austrian barons Erasmus and Casparus Sterrenberg. In several cities he also received support of friends among the city leaders (regenten). In his work The terrae Ambitus vera quantitate (1617) under the authors name ("The Dutch Eratosthenes") Snellius describes the methods he used. He came up with an estimate of 28,500 Rhineland rods () - in modern units 107.37 km for one degree of latitude. 360 times 107.37 then gives a circumference of the Earth of 38,653 km. The actual circumference is 40,075 kilometers, so Snellius underestimated the circumference of the earth by 3.5%.