The decimal numeral system (also called base 10 or occasionally denary) has ten as its base. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations.
John Napier is best known as the discoverer of logarithms. He also invented the so-called "Napier's bones" and made common the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics.
Among Napier's early followers were the instrument makers Edmund Gunter and John Speidell.The development of logarithms is given credit as the largest single factor in the general adoption of decimal arithmetic. The Trissotetras (1645) of Thomas Urquhart builds on Napier's work, in trigonometry.
