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Bonaventura Cavalieri developed a method of indivisibles which became a factor in the development of the integral calculus.
Cavalieri joined the religious order Jesuati while still a boy. His interest in mathematics was stimulated by Euclid's works and after meeting Galileo, considered himself a disciple of the astronomer.
in 1629 Cavalieri was appointed to the chair of mathematics at Bologna but by this time he had already developed a method of indivisibles which became a factor in the development of the integral calculus.
Cavalieri's theory of indivisibles, presented in his Geometria indivisibilis continuorum nova of 1635 was a development of Archimedes' method of exhaustion incorporating Kepler's theory of infinitesimally small geometric quantities. This theory allowed Cavalieri to find simply and rapidly the area and volume of various geometric figures.
The method of indivisibles was not put on a rigorous basis and his book was widely attacked. In reply Cavalieri improved his exposition publishing Exercitationes geometricae sex which became the main source for 17 C mathematicians.
Cavalieri was also largely responsible for introducing logarithms as a computational tool in Italy through his book Directorium Generale Uranometricum .
Cavalieri also wrote on conic sections, trigonometry, optics, astronomy, and astrology.
References elsewhere in this archive:
Tell me about Cavalieri's work on Minimal Paths
Tell me about Cavalieri's contribution to trigonometric notation
Tell me about Cavalieri's contribution to the development of calculus
Other Web sites:
Rice University, USA
Florence, Italy.
References:
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