1638-1675

Scottish mathematician and astronomer who designed the first plausible reflecting telescope (1663), though he was unable to obtain mirrors of sufficient quality to produce a working model. Gregory also made significant contributions to the discovery of calculus. He independently discovered the general binomial expansion (1670) and introduced the terms "convergent" and "divergent." Proposition 6 of his Geometricae pars Universalis (1667) has often incorrectly been viewed as the first proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus.