Pierre Varignon
Who was Pierre Varignon?
French mathematician
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Pierre Varignon (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Pierre Varignon (1654 – 23 December 1722) was a French mathematician and Catholic priest known for his contributions to mechanics, calculus, and physics. He was one of the leading scientific figures in late 17th- and early 18th-century France. Born in Caen, he studied at the Jesuit Collège du Mont and the University of Caen Normandy, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in 1682. He joined the clergy the following year while pursuing his love for mathematics. His interest in the subject began with Euclid and grew stronger after reading Descartes' La Géométrie.
In 1688, Varignon became a professor of mathematics at the Collège Mazarin in Paris, a role he excelled in for the rest of his life. That year, he also joined the Académie Royale des Sciences. By 1704, he led the department at Collège Mazarin and taught mathematics at the Collège Royal. He gained further recognition with elections to the Berlin Academy in 1713 and the Royal Society in 1718, underscoring his wide-ranging and original contributions to natural philosophy and mathematics.
Varignon's main scientific work focused on graphic statics and mechanics. His 1687 work, Projet d'une nouvelle mécanique, tackled mechanical problems by systematically combining forces, influencing many in the field. He was a strong advocate of infinitesimal calculus, nearly rivaling l'Hôpital among his French peers. He defended Leibniz's calculus against Michel Rolle's criticisms, identifying flaws in Rolle's arguments. Varignon also worked on blending Leibniz's methods with Newton's principles of inertial mechanics, bridging two often considered opposing schools of thought.
Outside mechanics and calculus, Varignon contributed to instrumentation and applied science. In 1699, he published studies on using differential calculus for fluid flow and water clocks. By 1702, he applied analytical methods to spring-driven clocks. His significant invention came in 1704 with the U-tube manometer, which measured gas rarefaction and became vital in physics and engineering. In 1690, he also offered a mechanical explanation of gravitation, illustrating the wide scope of his scientific interests.
Varignon was close friends with Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and the Bernoulli family, placing him at the heart of European mathematical exchange during a highly innovative era. Much of his work was published after his death: a collection was released in Paris in 1725, and his lectures at Mazarin were published as Élémens de mathématique in 1731. He passed away in Paris on 23 December 1722, leaving a legacy that influenced mechanics and analysis in France for many years.
Before Fame
Pierre Varignon was born in Caen in 1654, a city in Normandy known for its strong tradition of church and humanist studies. He got his early education at the Collège du Mont, a Jesuit school, and then went on to the University of Caen Normandy, earning his Master of Arts in 1682. Varignon taught himself serious mathematics, reading Euclid on his own and later studying Descartes' La Géométrie, a key text in early modern math. This self-led learning gave him a foundation that formal education often didn't offer at the time.
After becoming a priest in 1683, Varignon headed to Paris, the hub of French intellectual life and home to institutions like the Académie Royale des Sciences. In 1688, he secured a role at the Collège Mazarin and was elected to the Académie, transitioning from a local cleric and self-taught mathematician to a leading figure in French science. The support networks and scholarly communities in Paris helped propel his career forward.
Key Achievements
- Formulated Varignon's theorem relating the moment of a resultant force to the sum of moments of its components, a cornerstone of graphic statics.
- Invented the U-tube manometer in 1704, enabling measurement of gas rarefaction.
- Became one of the earliest and most effective French advocates of Leibnizian infinitesimal calculus, defending it publicly against Michel Rolle's criticisms.
- Adapted Leibniz's calculus to the inertial mechanics of Newton's Principia, bridging two major traditions in natural philosophy.
- Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1718 and member of both the Académie Royale des Sciences and the Berlin Academy.
Did You Know?
- 01.Varignon invented the U-tube manometer in 1704, a device for measuring gas rarefaction that remained in practical scientific use long after his death.
- 02.He first encountered mathematics not through formal instruction but by independently reading Euclid and Descartes' La Géométrie.
- 03.Varignon was personally acquainted with both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz at a time when their respective followers were engaged in a bitter priority dispute over the invention of calculus.
- 04.His collected works were not published until 1725, three years after his death, and his lecture notes from the Collège Mazarin did not appear in print until 1731.
- 05.In 1704 he held two professorships simultaneously, chairing mathematics at both the Collège Mazarin and the Collège Royal in Paris.
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Fellow of the Royal Society | — | — |