John Napier was born in 1550 in the Tower of Merchiston, near Edinburgh, Scotland. Napier's work on logarithms greatly influenced the work that was to be done in the future. The logarithm's ability to simplify calculations meant that Kepler and many others were able to find the relationships and formulas for motion of bodies. In turn, Kepler's laws and observations provided a basis for Newton's theory of gravitation.