Mathematician:Vincenzo Viviani

Mathematician

Italian mathematician and scientist.

Pupil of Evangelista Torricelli and a disciple of Galileo.

Succeeded in determining the tangent to the cycloid.

Nationality

Italian

History

• Born: 5 April 1622 in Florence (now Italy)
• 1660: Conducted an experiment to determine the speed of sound (with Giovanni Alfonso Borelli)
• 1661: Experimented with the rotation of pendulums (supposedly)
• Died: 22 September 1703 in Florence (now Italy)

Theorems and Definitions

• Viviani's Theorem
• Viviani's Curve

Results named for Vincenzo Viviani can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Vincenzo Viviani can be found here.

Publications

• 1654: Racconto istorico della vita di Galileo Galilei ("Historical Account of the Life of Galileo Galilei") (not published until 1717)
• 1655 -- 1656: First edition of Galileo's collected works (as editor)
• 1659: De Maximis et Minimis (attempted reconstruction of book $5$ of Apollonius's Conics)
• 1674: An edition of Euclid's The Elements
• 1684: Relazione intorno al riparare per quanto possibile sia la città e campagne di Pisa dall'inondazioni
• 1687: Discorso intorno al difendersi da' riempimenti e dalle corrosione de' fiumi

Sources

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

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Viviani, Vincenzo (1622-1703)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Viviani, Vincenzo (1622-1703)