Editing Jurij Vega

{{Short description|Slovene mathematician, physicist, and artillery officer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Jurij Vega
| image = Georg Freiherr von Vega 1802.jpg
| caption = Vega in an 1802 illustration
| birth_name = Jurij Bartolomej Vega
| birth_date = {{birth date|1754|3|23|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Zagorica pri Dolskem]], [[Habsburg monarchy]], [[Holy Roman Empire]] (now [[Slovenia]])
| death_date = {{death date and age|1802|9|26|1754|3|23|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Nußdorf, Vienna|Nußdorf]] near [[Vienna]], [[Archduchy of Austria]]
| workplaces = [[University of Applied Sciences Mainz|Academy of Practical Sciences in Mainz]]
| academic_advisors = [[Gabriel Gruber]]<ref name=SZ>Stanislav Južnič, [https://www.academia.edu/14208393/Georg_Vega_Slovenian_Archimedes_from_Pasture_to_Baron_ "Georg Vega, Slovenian Archimedes (from Pasture to Baron)"]</ref><br>Joseph Giuseppe Jakob von Maffei<ref name=SZ/>
| notable_students = {{Interlanguage link|Ignaz Lindner|sl}}<ref name=SZ/>
| education = [[Jesuit]] College of Ljubljana<br>(''{{Interlanguage link|Jezuitski kolegij v Ljubljani|sl}}'')<br>(1767–1773)<ref name=SZ/>
| alma_mater = Ljubljana [[Lyceum]]<br>(''Licej v Ljubljani'')<br>(1773–1775; diploma, 1775)<ref name=SZ/>
}}

[[Baron]] '''Jurij Bartolomej Vega''' (also spelled '''Veha'''; {{langx|la|Georgius Bartholomaei Vecha}}; {{langx|de|Georg Freiherr von Vega}}; born Vehovec, March 23, 1754 – September 26, 1802) was a [[Slovenes|Slovene]] [[mathematician]], [[physicist]], and [[artillery]] [[commissioned officer]].

==Early life==
{{multiple image
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| image1 = Birthplace of Jurij Vega.jpg
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| caption1 = Jurij Vega's birthplace
| image2 = Zagorica pri Dolskem Slovenia - plaque.JPG
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| caption2 = Plaque on the house
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Born into a farmer's family<ref>Šuman, Josef; Simonič, Franz. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uZkJAAAAIAAJ&q=Georg+Vega ''Die Völker Oesterreich-ungarns. Ethnographische und culturhistorische Schilderungen''], Vol. 10, K. Prochaska Press, 1881, p. 182: "Der Bauernsohn Georg Vega, geboren 1754 zu Zagoric in der Moräutscher Pfarre (Moravče), betrat unter Kaiser Josef seine Ruhmesbahn."</ref> in the small village of [[Zagorica pri Dolskem|Zagorica]], east of [[Ljubljana]] in present-day [[Slovenia]], Jurij Vega was six years old when his father, Jernej Veha, died.

He was first educated in Moravče and then attended high school for six years (1767–1773) at the [[Jesuit]] College in Ljubljana (''{{Interlanguage link|Jezuitski kolegij v Ljubljani|sl}}''), where he studied Latin, [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], [[religion]], German, [[history]], [[geography]], [[science]], and [[mathematics]]. At the time, the college had around 500 students. He was a schoolmate of [[Anton Tomaž Linhart]], the Slovenian writer and historian.

Vega completed high school in 1773 at the age of 19. Afterward, he studied at the [[Lyceum]] of Ljubljana (''Licej v Ljubljani'') and became a navigational engineer in 1775. A copy of his ''Tentamen philosophicum''—a list of questions for his comprehensive examination—has been preserved and is housed in the Mathematical Library in Ljubljana. The problems include topics in [[logic]], [[algebra]], [[metaphysics]], [[geometry]], [[trigonometry]], [[geodesy]], [[stereometry]], the [[geometry]] of [[curve]]s, [[ballistics]], and general and special [[physics]].

==Military service==
Vega left Ljubljana five years after graduating and entered military service in 1780, becoming a professor of mathematics at the Artillery School in Vienna. Around this time, he began using the surname ''Vega'' instead of his original surname, ''Veha''.

At the age of 33, Vega married Josefa Svoboda (also spelled Jožefa Swoboda) (1771–1800), a Czech noblewoman from [[České Budějovice]], who was 16 years old at the time.

Vega participated in several military campaigns. In 1788, he served under Austrian Imperial Field Marshal [[Ernst Gideon von Laudon]] (1717–1790) in a campaign against the [[Ottoman Empire]] at [[Belgrade]]. His command of several [[mortar (weapon)|mortar]] batteries significantly contributed to the fall of the Belgrade fortress.

Between 1793 and 1797, he fought against [[French Revolutionary]] forces under the command of Austrian General [[Dagobert Wurmser|Dagobert-Sigismond de Wurmser]] (1724–1797) as part of the European coalition allied with Austria. Vega participated in battles at [[Fort-Louis|Fort Louis]], [[Mannheim]], [[Mainz]], [[Wiesbaden]], [[Kehl]], and [[Diez, Germany|Diez]].

In 1795, he designed two 30-pound (14 kg) mortars with conically drilled bases and larger charges, increasing their firing range to up to 3,000 metres (3,300 yards). By comparison, the older 60-pound (27 kg) mortars had a range of only 1,800 metres (2,000 yards).

In September 1802, Vega was reported missing. After a few days, his body was found. A police report concluded that his death was accidental. It is believed that he died on 26 September 1802 in [[Nußdorf, Vienna|Nußdorf]], a district along the [[Danube]], near [[Vienna]], the capital of [[Austria]].

==Mathematical accomplishments==
[[File:Houghton Math 837.97 - Logarithmisch-trigonometrische, tabula.jpg|thumb|right|"Tabula Logarithmorum Vulgarium", 1797]]

Vega published a series of books containing [[logarithm]]ic tables. The first volume appeared in 1783. Much later, in 1797, it was followed by a second volume that included a collection of integrals and other useful formulae. His ''Handbook'', originally published in 1793, was later translated into several languages and issued in over 100 editions.

His most significant work was ''Thesaurus Logarithmorum Completus'' (''Treasury of All Logarithms''), first published in 1794 in [[Leipzig]] (its 90th edition appeared in 1924). Although based on the tables of [[Adriaan Vlacq]], Vega's version corrected numerous errors and extended the logarithms of trigonometric functions for small angles. An engineer, Franc Allmer, an honorary senator of the [[Graz University of Technology]], discovered a copy of Vega's 10-digit logarithmic tables in the Museum of [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]] in [[Göttingen]]. Gauss frequently used Vega's tables and even wrote calculations in the margins. He also found and marked some errors in the millions of values Vega had calculated.

A copy of ''Thesaurus Logarithmorum Completus'' from the private collection of mathematician and computing pioneer [[Charles Babbage]] (1791–1871) is preserved at the [[Royal Observatory, Edinburgh]].

Over the years, Vega also wrote a four-volume textbook titled ''Vorlesungen über die Mathematik'' (''Lectures on Mathematics'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vorlesungen über die Mathematik - Wikimedia Commons|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jurij_Vega_-_Vorlesungen_%C3%BCber_die_Mathematik.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jurij_Vega_-_Vorlesungen_%C3%BCber_die_Mathematik.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> Volume I was published in 1782 when Vega was 28 years old, followed by Volume II in 1784, Volume III in 1788, and Volume IV in 1800. These textbooks include valuable tables; for example, Volume II contains [[Exact trigonometric constants|closed-form expressions for the sines of multiples of 3 degrees]], presented in a user-friendly format.

Vega also authored at least six scientific papers. On August 20, 1789, he set a world record by calculating [[pi]] to 140 decimal places, of which the first 126 were correct.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vega |first=Géorge |year=1795 |orig-year=1789 |title=Détermination de la demi-circonférence d'un cercle dont le diamètre est {{math|{{=}} 1}}, exprimée en {{math|140}} figures décimales |journal=Nova Acta Academiae Scientiarum Petropolitanae |volume=11 |department=Supplement |pages=41–44 |url=https://archive.org/details/novaactaacademia09impe/page/n52/mode/2up}}

<p>{{cite web |last=Sandifer |first=Ed |year=2006 |title=Why 140 Digits of Pi Matter |website=Southern Connecticut State University |url=http://www.southernct.edu/~sandifer/Ed/History/Preprints/Talks/Jurij%20Vega/Vega%20math%20script.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204040635/http://www.southernct.edu/~sandifer/Ed/History/Preprints/Talks/Jurij%20Vega/Vega%20math%20script.pdf }}</p></ref> He submitted this calculation to the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]] in [[Saint Petersburg]] in his booklet ''V. razprava'' (''The Fifth Discussion''), in which he identified an error at the 113th decimal place in the previous best estimate by [[Thomas Fantet de Lagny]] (1660–1734), which had claimed 127 digits. Vega's record held for 52 years, until 1841, and his method remains notable to this day. The academy published his result only in 1795, six years after submission.
Vega improved upon [[John Machin]]'s 1706 formula:

:<math> {\pi\over 4} = 4 \arctan \left({1\over 5}\right) - \arctan \left({1\over 239}\right)</math>

with his own formula, equivalent to one used by [[Leonhard Euler]] in 1755:

:<math> {\pi\over 4} = 5 \arctan \left({1\over 7}\right) + 2 \arctan \left({3\over 79}\right),</math>

which converges faster than Machin's version. He also cross-checked his results using [[Charles Hutton]]’s formula:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hutton’s Formula – from Wolfram MathWorld|url=https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HuttonsFormula.html}}</ref>

:<math> {\pi\over 4} = 2 \arctan \left({1\over 3}\right) + \arctan \left({1\over 7}\right). </math>

Vega only developed the second term of the series once in his calculations.

Although he made contributions to [[ballistics]], [[physics]], and [[astronomy]], his most enduring legacy lies in the field of mathematics during the second half of the 18th century.

In 1781, Vega advocated for the adoption of the decimal [[metric system]] of units within the Austrian [[Habsburg]] monarchy. While his proposal was not accepted at the time, the system was officially introduced later under Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph I]] in 1871.

Vega was a member of several scholarly societies, including the [[University of Applied Sciences Mainz|Academy of Practical Sciences in Mainz]], the Physical and Mathematical Society of [[Erfurt]], the Bohemian Scientific Society in [[Prague]], and the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences]] in [[Berlin]]. He was also an associate member of the British Scientific Society in [[Göttingen]]. On May 11, 1796, he was awarded the Order of [[Maria Theresa of Austria|Maria Theresa]], and in 1800 he was granted the title of hereditary baron, along with the right to a personal coat of arms.

==Legacy==
[[Jurij Vega High School]] (''Gimnazija Jurija Vege'') in [[Idrija]] was founded in 1901 as the first Slovene ''[[Realschule]]''.

In 1935, the [[Vega (crater)]] on the Moon was named in his honor. In March 1993, the National Bank of Slovenia issued a 50 [[Slovenian tolar|tolar]] banknote featuring Jurij Vega.<ref>{{cite web|title=Slovenia 50 tolarjev banknote 1992 Baron Jurij Bartolomej Vega|website=worldbanknotescoins.com|url=https://www.worldbanknotescoins.com/2014/05/slovenia-50-tolarjev.html}}</ref> The [[Post of Slovenia|Slovenian Post]] also issued a commemorative stamp in his honor in 1994. In 2004, Slovenia released commemorative coins marking the 250th anniversary of Vega's birth.<ref>{{cite web|website=Banka Slovenije|title=250th Anniversary of the Birth of Jurij Vega (2004)|url=https://www.bsi.si/en/banknotes-and-coins/slovenian-tolar/commemorative-editions-republic-of-slovenia/250th-anniversary-of-the-birth-of-jurij-vega-2004}}</ref>

The [[asteroid]] [[14966 Jurijvega]], discovered on July 30, 1997, was named after him. Slovenia's Vega Astronomical Society<ref>{{Cite web |title=Astronomsko društvo Vega |url=https://www.ad-vega.si/}}</ref> is named in honor of both Jurij Vega and the star [[Vega]]. However, the star Vega is not named after Jurij Vega; its name predates him by centuries.

A free, open-source physics library for 3D deformable object simulation, Vega FEM, is also named after Jurij Vega.

==Scientific genealogy==
Vega is also notable for being the tutor and academic advisor of [[Ignaz Lindner]],<ref name=SZ/> resulting in a notable [[scientific genealogy]] (see ''Academic genealogy of theoretical physicists: Jurij Vega'').

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commons category|Jurij Vega}}
* [http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbourj/money2.htm Jurij Vega on the Slovenian 50 Tolars banknote.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090205031910/http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jbourj/money2.htm |date=2009-02-05 }}
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Vega.html Georg Freiherr von Vega] at [[MacTutor History of Mathematics archive]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040405042918/http://www.ijp.si/JurijVega/conference.html Vega and his time]
* [http://www.jernejbarbic.com/vega Vega FEM library]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vega, Jurij}}
[[Category:1754 births]]
[[Category:1802 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Carniolan people]]
[[Category:18th-century mathematicians]]
[[Category:18th-century physicists]]
[[Category:18th-century astronomers]]
[[Category:Carniolan mathematicians]]
[[Category:Carniolan physicists]]
[[Category:Carniolan astronomers]]
[[Category:Ballistics experts]]
[[Category:Pi-related people]]
[[Category:Austrian barons]]
[[Category:Slovene nobility]]
[[Category:Carniolan nobility]]
[[Category:People from the Municipality of Dol pri Ljubljani]]
[[Category:18th-century mathematicians from the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:18th-century astronomers from the Holy Roman Empire]]