Mathematician:Pierre Varignon

Mathematician

French mathematician whose principal contributions were to graphic statics and mechanics.

Friend of Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, and the Bernoulli family.

One of the earliest and strongest French advocates of infinitesimal calculus.

Exposed the errors in Michel Rolle's critique thereof.

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 1654 in Caen, France
• Educated at Jesuit College
• 19 December 1676: took holy orders
• September 1682: Received M.A. from University of Caen
• 1683: Became priest at Saint Ouen parish in Caen
• 1686: Went to Paris and made contact with mathematicians and scientists there
• 1688: Became professor of mathematics at Collège Mazarin in Paris
• 1688: Elected to the Académie Royale des Sciences
• 1690: Created a mechanical explanation of gravitation
• 1702: Applied calculus to spring-driven clocks
• 1704: Held departmental chair at Collège Mazarin
• 1704: Became professor of mathematics at Collège Royal
• 1704: Invented the U-tube manometer
• 1713: Elected to Berlin Academy
• 1718: Elected to Royal Society
• Died: 23 December 1722 in Paris, France

Theorems

• Varignon's Parallelogram Theorem
• Varignon's Theorem (Mechanics)

Results named for Pierre Varignon can be found here.

Publications

• 1687: Projet d'une nouvelle mécanique
• 1699: (concerning the application of differential calculus to fluid flow and to water clocks)
• 1731: Elements de mathematique

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Pierre Varignon": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive