Bernard Forest de Bélidor (1698,

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Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

– 8 September 1761,

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) was a French

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

, significant to the development of the science of hydraulics and

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially ranged weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets or the like; the science or art of designing a ...

Bernard Forest de Bélidor, by Louis-Gabriel Blanchet

He was the son of Jean Baptiste Foret de Belidor, an officer of dragoons, and his wife, Marie Héber but was orphaned at five months old and brought up by the family of his godfather, an artillery officer named de Fossiébourg. Bélidor enlisted in the army at a young age. After leaving the army, he developed an interest in science and engineering, and became professor of artillery at the school of Fère-en-Tardenois in

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.arc of the earth. In the years to come he published several works of great importance, on a wide range of subjects, including hydraulics,

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and civil and

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. His most famous book is ''L'architecture hydraulique'' (published in four volumes from 1737-1753). Here,

integral calculus In mathematics, an integral assigns numbers to Function (mathematics), functions in a way that describes Displacement (geometry), displacement, area, volume, and other concepts that arise by combining infinitesimal data. The process of finding ...

is used for the first time in solving technical problems. Bélidor was the teacher of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

’s

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n favourite,

Abram Petrovich Gannibal Abram Petrovich Gannibal, also Hannibal or Ganibal, or Abram Hannibal or Abram Petrov ( ru , Абра́м Петро́вич Ганниба́л; c. 1696 – 14 May 1781), was a Russian military engineer, general-in-chief, and nobleman of Afri ...

. In November 1726, he was elected a

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. He married the daughter or granddaughter of de Fossiébourg.

Works

*''Nouveau cours de mathématiques'', 1725 (first use of the term ''

sinusoid A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or just sinusoid is a mathematical curve defined in terms of the ''sine'' trigonometric function, of which it is the graph. It is a type of continuous wave and also a smooth periodic function. It occurs often in ...

'') *''La science des ingénieurs dans la conduite des travaux de fortification et d'architecture civile'', 1729 *''Le bombardier français, ou, nouvelle méthode pour jeter des bombes avec précision. Tables'', 1731 *''L'architecture hydraulique, ou l'art de conduire, d'élever et de ménager les eaux pour les différents besoins de la vie'', (1737-1753) *''Dictionnaire portatif de l'ingénieur'', 1758

References

External links

Bélidor works
in the

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Belidor, Bernard Forest De 1698 births 1761 deaths French engineers 18th-century French mathematicians Ballistics experts Members of the French Academy of Sciences Fellows of the Royal Society