Antoine Parent (September 16, 1666 – September 26, 1716) was a French

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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

and died there, who wrote in 1700 on

analytical geometry In classical mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry or Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry. Analytic geometry is used in physics and engine ...

of three dimensions. His works were collected and published in three volumes at Paris in 1713. Parent had the idea to represent any surface by means of an equation between the three coordinates to any of its points. He derived the correct formula for bending of cantilever beams. He correctly assumed a central neutral axis and linear stress distribution from tensile at the top face to equal and opposite compression at the bottom, thus deriving a correct elastic section modulus of the cross sectional area times the section depth divided by six. Parent's work had little impact, and it was many more years before scientific principles were regularly applied to the analysis of the strength of beams in bending.Loria,G.(1902). Sketch of the origin and development of geometry prior to 1850. The Monist(13)1 p.101.

References

1666 births 1716 deaths 17th-century French mathematicians 18th-century French mathematicians Members of the French Academy of Sciences {{France-mathematician-stub