Roberval

Gilles Personne de Roberval

Born: 10 Aug 1602 in Senlis, France
Died: 27 Oct 1675 in Paris, France

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Roberval was one of the group to meet with Mersenne. In fact, he was the only professional mathematician in the group. Roberval was professor of philosophy in the Collège Gervais in Paris and then professor of mathematics in the Collège Royal for 40 years.

He developed powerful methods in the early study of integration. He computed the definite integral of sin x, worked on the cycloid and computed the arc length of a spiral. Roberval is important for his discoveries on plane curves and for his method for drawing the tangent to a curve, already suggested by Torricelli.

In 1669 he invented the Roberval balance which is now almost universally used for weighing scales of the balance type.

References elsewhere in this archive:

Tell me about Roberval's contributions to Calculus

Among the curves Roberval worked on were the Cissoid of Diocles, the Cycloid, the Folium of Descartes, the Limacon of Pascal and the Right Strophoid.

Other Web sites:

Rice University, USA

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. J A N de Condorcet, Éloge de Roberval, Oeuvres de Condorcet II (Paris, 1847), 5-12.
  3. L Auger, Un savant meconnu : Gilles Personne de Roberval (1602-1675) : son activite intellectuelle dans les domaines mathematique, physique, mecanique et philosophique (Paris, 1962). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996