François Viète

Person · Open Library

Born

1540

Died

1603

Works

21

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type

Person

Gender

Male

Origin

France

Active from

1668-11-10

Active to

1733-09-11

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

1. Welcome to the Tidyverse

   · 2019 · cited 20,499x

2. New Algorithms and Methods to Estimate Maximum-Likelihood Phylogenies: Assessing the Performance of PhyML 3.0

   · 2010 · cited 16,968x

3. Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

   · 2020 · cited 15,989x

4. Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis

   · 2022 · cited 13,923x

5. Sorafenib in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma

   · 2008 · cited 11,238x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

• “There is a certain way of searching for the truth in mathematics that Plato is said first to have discovered; Theon named it analysis, and defined it as the assumption of that which is sought as if it were admitted and working through its consequences to what is admitted to be true. This is opposed to synthesis, which is the assuming what is admitted and working through its consequences to arrive at and to understand that which is sought.”
• “Rhaeticus was not a ready calculator only... Up to his time, the trigonometric functions had been considered always with relation to the arc; he was the first to construct the right triangle and to make them depend directly upon its angles. It was from the right triangle that Rhæticus got his idea of calculating the hypotenuse; i.e., he was the first to plan a table of secants. Good work in trigonometry was done also by Vieta and Romanus.”
• “Vieta [was] the most eminent French mathematician of the sixteenth century.”
• “He was employed throughout life in the service of the state, under Henry III and Henry IV. He was, therefore, not a mathematician by profession, but his love for the science was so great that he remained in his chamber studying, sometimes several days in succession, without eating and sleeping more than was necessary to sustain himself. So great devotion to abstract science is the more remarkable because he lived at a time of incessant political and religious turmoil.”
• “During the war against Spain, Vieta rendered service to Henry IV by deciphering intercepted letters written in a species of cipher, and addressed by the Spanish Court to their governor of Netherlands. The Spaniards attributed the discovery of the key to magic.”
• “Detailed investigations on the famous old problem of the section of an angle into an odd number of equal parts, led Vieta to the discovery of a trigonometrical solution of Cardan's irreducible case in cubics. He applied the equation (2 cos 1⁄3 φ)3 - 3 (2 cos 1⁄3 cos φ) = 2 cos φ to the solution of x3 - 3 a2x = a2b, when a > ½ b, by placing x = 2 a cos 1⁄3 φ, and determining φ from b = 2a cos φ.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Given name

François

Gender

male

Citizenship

France

Place of birth

Fontenay-le-Comte

Place of death

Paris

Occupation

lawyer

Educated at

University of Poitiers

Employer

Henry IV of France

Languages spoken

Middle French

Academic degree

Bachelor of Laws

Field of work

mathematics

Image

Francois Viete.jpeg

via Wikidata · CC0