astronomy

Jakub Kresa

Jakub Kresa is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jakub Kresa rather than just read about it. In short: Jakub Kresa (Spanish: Jacobo Kresa, Latin: Jacobo Kreysa; 19 July 1648 – 28 July 1715) was a Czech mathematician. He was one of the most important mathematicians of the Baroque era in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Key takeaways

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Connect Jakub Kresa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jakub Kresa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jakub Kresa (Spanish: Jacobo Kresa, Latin: Jacobo Kreysa; 19 July 1648 – 28 July 1715) was a Czech mathematician. He was one of the most important mathematicians of the Baroque era in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Biography

Early life Jakub Kresa was born into a smallholder's family at Smržice near Prostějov. He studied at the Jesuit gymnasium (school) in Brno. There he proved to be an extraordinary student. He not only displayed rare skills in mathematics, but he also became a polyglot, able to speak fluently Hebrew, German, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese, in addition to his Czech mother-tongue. In 1669–1670 he taught at the gymnasium (school) in Litoměřice. Then he went to Prague, where he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University between 1670 and 1673. After spending a short time back in Litoměřice, he returned to Prague in 1675 and continued his studies in mathematics and theology. Kresa was ordained a priest in 1680. After this he spent a short time in Telč.

In the Czech Crown lands

In 1681 Jakub Kresa started to teach Hebrew at the University of Olomouc. There he obtained his first doctorate and between 1682 and 1684 taught mathematics. In Olomouc Kresa's other high points included presiding at the academic dissertation of the mathematician and astronomer Jan Taletius, who devised a model to predict eclipses of the sun and of the moon. Jakub Kresa was also often entrusted with diplomatic tasks. During the peasants' uprising in northern Bohemia in 1680, he served as mediator between the cavalry regiment of general Vilém Harant z Polžic and the peasant leaders. In 1684 Kresa left Olomouc to become head of the Departments of Mathematics and of Hebreistics at the Charles University. He was also preaching at the St. Salvador church in Prague. By this time he was already well known for his extraordinary skills regarding mathematics, languages and diplomacy, and he was offered the position of head of Department of Mathematics at the Colegio Imperial de Madrid. He relocated to Spain in 1686 and stayed there for fifteen years.

In Spain In order to make the study of mathematics easier for the Spanish students, Kresa translated the 8 books of Euclid's Elements into Spanish. This brought him recognition and he soon became renowned in the whole country, being dubbed the Euclid of the West. At that time it became a custom in Spain to let Kresa assess mathematical treatises ahead of publication. Apart from the Colegio Imperial de Madrid, Kresa was also giving lectures at the Naval academy of Cádiz.

Back in the Czech Crown lands Following the death of spanish king Charles II in 1700 Kresa went back to Prague. He obtained a doctorate in theology at Charles University and also started to teach theology there. At the same time he was privately teaching mathematics and was acquiring mathematical apparatus for the Department of Mathematics. He was engaged in arithmetic, fractions and logarithms, trigonometry, astronomy, algebra, as well as military architecture. One of his private students, Count Ferdinand Herbert, published Kresa's ideas in magazine Acta Eruditorum in 1711.

Late life The Emperor Leopold I appointed Kresa as confessor of his second son, the Archduke Charles. He remained in this position after Charles took over the Spanish throne, within the War of the Spanish Succession, and therefore returned to Spain with him (1704–1713). After nine years in Spain, and the defeat of Charles, Kresa went back to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, working with the help of Karel Slavíček on mathematical theories in Brno, where he died in 1715.

Legacy

Kresa's manuscripts were transcribed for printing by his students František Tillisch and Karel Slavíček, who both later taught at Olomouc. The lectures Kresa gave at Charles University were recorded by student called Kryštof John, who published them under the title Mathematica in universitate Pragensi tradica a P. Jacobo Kreysa ... excerpta anno 1685. The manuscript is today stored at the library of Strahov Monastery. In Kresa's era the Trigonometric functions were derived using geometry. Kresa was the first to introduce algebraic number to trigonometry. Kresa's death was followed by a decline in mathematics and science in the Czech Crown lands due to the dogmatic application of Catholic Church doctrines. With Slavíček having gone to China, scientific work largely disappeared from the Czech lands for two decades. Although the theories of Isaac Newton, Jacques Cassini and Edmond Halley were well known, local scientists (such as Josef Player or Jan Slezina) were continued to work with the obsolete theories of Ptolemaios and Aristoteles. It was only a quarter of a century later, that scientific work was resumed by peoples such as Jan Antonín Scrinci (1697–1773) and Joseph Stepling (1716–1778).

Major works Theses mathematicae defendidas por el Ex. mo Seňor Don Innigo de la Cruz ... en colegio de la Compaňia de Jesus de Ciudad de Cadiz, 1688 Elementes geometricos de Euclides, los seis primeros Libros de los planos, etc., Brussels 1689 Arithmetica Tyro-Brunensis curiosa varietate et observatione communi quidem omnium fructui, sed praeprimis Tyronibus Mathemetum utilis, Prague 1715 Analysis speciosa trigonometriae sphericae, etc. Prague 1720

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jakub Kresa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jakub Kresa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jakub Kresa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jakub Kresa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jakub Kresa

In research: Jakub Kresa appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jakub Kresa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jakub Kresa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1648 births, 1715 deaths, 17th-century Jesuits, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jakub Kresa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jakub Kresa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jakub Kresa means in your own words.
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Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Jakub Kresa in simple terms?

Why does Jakub Kresa matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jakub Kresa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jakub Kresa.