Gilles Personne de Roberval is generally considered to be the founder of kinematic geometry (a branch of mechanics that deals with pure motion) because of his discoveries about plane curves and the method he developed for drawing the tangent to a curve. He was also important historically because of his close contact and correspondence with many of the other important mathematicians of his day. Roberval was a leading expert in the geometry of infinitesimals.
Roberval was born near Senlis, France on August 10, 1602, the son of a poor Catholic farmer. According to historical records, he had no formal schooling until he became intensely interested in mathematics at age 14. At that point, or perhaps before, he left his family and began traveling around the country making a living as a tutor. Roberval took classes at the universities he found himself near, in this manner gaining a more complete education in mathematics, physics, and mechanics.
Arriving in Paris in 1628, Roberval started making the acquaintance of other brilliant mathematicians, including Marin Mersenne and Blaise Pascal. However, Roberval would become the only professional mathematician among his new group of friends. In 1632 the Collége de Maitre Gervaise in Paris appointed him professor of philosophy, but he would also serve as a private mathematics tutor there for the rest of his life. Roberval won a prestigious competition for a mathematics teaching position at the Royal College in 1634. He kept this post for the remainder of his life as well. In fact, many scientific historians believe that Roberval's tendency to keep his research secret was due to his wish to retain the position, which was reopened to competition every three years. In 1655 Roberval received an appointment to the school's mathematics chair.
In 1636, Roberval wrote The Features of Mechanics. He had a highly publicized debate with René Descartes, who was reportedly a longtime adversary, about the center of oscillation of the compound pendulum in 1647. In 1669, Roberval contributed a paper on infinitesimals ("Features of Indivisibles") to a collection of works by members of the French Royal Academy of Sciences (of which he was a founding member in 1666). This paper became a powerful addition to methods in the early study of integers--especially since it made discussion of them more logical and precise.
Roberval invented what is now known as the Roberval balance, used for weighing scales of the balancing sort, in 1669. At this late stage in his life, the mathematician also worked in the field of cartography, writing several works on the enormous project of mapping France. He also studied the vacuum and made equipment that Pascal used for his experiments on putting a "vacuum within a vacuum."
Roberval died in Paris on October 27, 1675 at the age of 73.
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