Statue Simon Stevin

Did you know that Simon Stevin worked for four years as a tax inspector in Bruges (from 1577-1581), he then moved to Leiden to study science at the prestigious Dutch university. While in the Netherlands, Stevin began publishing books on geometry, hydrostatics and mathematics. He was the first to use the decimal point in mathematics and also proved that the downward pressure of a liquid depended on the height and base of the liquid and not on the shape of the container. When Thomas Jefferson launched the US dollar in 1792, he based the currency on Stevin’s decimal system, which the scientist from Bruges had outlined in his 1585 booklet De Thiende (The Tenth).

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