Harriot, Thomas, also spelled Hariot
Mathematician and scientist, born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, SC England, UK. He studied at Oxford, became mathematical tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh (1581--5), and was sent to survey Virginia. He corresponded with Johannes Kepler on astronomical matters, observed Halley's comet in 1607, and made observations with the newly discovered telescope from 1609, as early as Galileo. He studied optics, refraction by prisms, and the formation of rainbows. Most of his work was never published and remains in manuscript, although his Artis analyticae praxis, a treatise on algebra, was published posthumously in 1631, showing that he had developed an effective algebraic notation for the solution of equations.