André Tacquet (; 23 June 1612

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

– 22 December 1660

, also referred to by his Latinized name Andrea Tacquet) was a Brabantian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

. Tacquet adhered to the methods of the geometry of Euclid and the philosophy of

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

and opposed the method of indivisibles.

Life

André Tacquet was born in

, and entered the Jesuit Order in 1629. From 1631 to 1635, he studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

and

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

. Two of his teachers were

Grégoire de Saint-Vincent Grégoire de Saint-Vincent () - in Latin : Gregorius a Sancto Vincentio, in Dutch : Gregorius van St-Vincent - (8 September 1584 Bruges – 5 June 1667 Ghent) was a Flemish Jesuit and mathematician. He is remembered for his work on quadrature of ...

and Francois d'Aguilon. Tacquet became a brilliant mathematician of international fame and his works were often reprinted and translated (into Italian and English). His most famous work, which influenced the thinking of

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...

and his contemporaries, is ''Cylindricorum et annularium'' (1651). In this book Tacquet presented how a moving point could generate a

curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

and the theories of

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

and

volume Volume is a measure of regions in three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch) ...

. He died in Antwerp. In honor of André Tacquet, his name has been given to a small crater in the northeast part of the Moon, near the southern edge of Mare Serenitatis.

Opposition to the method of indivisibles

Tacquet claimed in his 1651 book ''Cylindricorum et annularium libri IV'' that : he method of indivisiblesmakes war upon geometry to such an extent, that if it is not to destroy it, it must itself be destroyed., p. 119 The Jesuat

Stefano degli Angeli Stefano degli Angeli (Venice, September 23, 1623 – Padova, October 11, 1697) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, and Jesuate. He was member of the Catholic Order of the Jesuats (Jesuati). In 1668 the order was suppressed by Pope Clemen ...

provided a detailed response, defending Cavalieri's method.

Works

* 1651: ''Cylindricorum et annularium libri IV'' (Antwerp
full text
* 1654: ''Elementa geometriae'' (Antwerp) * 1656: ''Arithmeticae theoria et praxis'' (Louvain) * 1659: ''Cylindricorum et annularium liber V'' (Antwerp
full text
* 1669: * 1725: ''Elementa Euclideae, geometriae'' (Amsterdam
full text

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tacquet, Andre 1612 births 1660 deaths Jesuits from the Spanish Netherlands Mathematicians from the Spanish Netherlands Jesuit scientists

Life

Opposition to the method of indivisibles

Works

See also

References