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Pierre Varignon

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French mathematician

Key facts

Born
1654 ( 1654 ) , Caen , France
Died
23 December 1722 (1722-12-23) (aged 67–68) , Paris , France
Known for
statics , mechanics , infinitesimal calculus , convergence of series , water clock , mechanical explanation of gravitation , Varignon's theorem
Fields
Mathematics
Institutions
Académie Royale des Sciences , Collège Royal , Collège Mazarin , Berlin Academy , Royal Society
Doctoral advisor
Nicolas Malebranche
Doctoral students
Jacques Cassini

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Pierre
Gender
male
Citizenship
France
Place of birth
Caen
Place of death
Paris
Languages spoken
Latin
Doctoral advisor
Nicolas Malebranche
Field of work
Catholic theology
Image
Pierre Varignon. Line engraving by E. Desrochers. Wellcome V0005993.jpg
Work location
Paris
Residence
Paris
Religious order
Society of Jesus
Show 8 more facts
Commons category
Pierre Varignon
date of birth
1654-00-00
date of death
1722-00-00
name in native language
Pierre Varignon
maintained by WikiProject
WikiProject Mathematics
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

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Encyclopedic overview

Pierre Varignon ( French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ vaʁiɲɔ̃]; 1654 – 23 December 1722) was a French mathematician. He was educated at the Jesuit College and the University of Caen, where he received his M.A. in 1682. He took Holy Orders the following year.

Varignon gained his first exposure to mathematics by reading Euclid and then Descartes' La Géométrie. He became professor of mathematics at the Collège Mazarin in Paris in 1688 and was elected to the Académie Royale des Sciences in the same year. In 1704, he held the departmental chair at Collège Mazarin and also became professor of mathematics at the Collège Royal. He was elected to the Berlin Academy in 1713 and to the Royal Society in 1718. Many of his works were published in Paris in 1725, three years after his death. His lectures at Mazarin were published in Elements de mathematique in 1731.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pierre Varignon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.