William George Horner (9 June 1786 – 22 September 1837) was a British mathematician. Proficient in classics; mathematics, he was a schoolmaster, headmaster and schoolkeeper, who wrote extensively on functional equations, number theory and approximation theory, but also on optics. His contribution to approximation theory is honoured in the designation Horner's method, in particular respect of a paper in "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London" for 1819. The modern invention of the zoetrope, under the name "Daedaleum" in 1834, has been attributed to him.