Lorenzo Mascheroni (; May 13, 1750 – July 14, 1800) was an
Italian mathematician
A list of notable mathematicians from Italy by century:
12th–15th centuries
12th century
*Plato Tiburtinus
13th century
*Guido Bonatti
* Campano da Novara
*Leonardo Fibonacci
14th century
*Paolo dell'Abbaco
* Giovanni di Gherardo da Prato
...
.
Biography
He was born near
Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
,
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
. At first mainly interested in the humanities (
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and
Greek language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...
), he eventually became professor of mathematics at
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
.
In his ''Geometria del Compasso'' (Pavia, 1797), he proved that any geometrical construction which can be done with
compass and straightedge
In geometry, straightedge-and-compass construction – also known as ruler-and-compass construction, Euclidean construction, or classical construction – is the construction of lengths, angles, and other geometric figures using only an ideali ...
, can also be done with compasses alone. However, the priority for this result (now known as the
Mohr–Mascheroni theorem
In mathematics, the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem states that any geometric construction that can be performed by a compass and straightedge can be performed by a compass alone.
It must be understood that by "any geometric construction", we are refer ...
) belongs to the
Dane
Dane or Danes may refer to:
People Pertaining to Denmark
* Dane, somebody from Denmark
* Danes, an ethnic group native to Denmark
* Danes (Germanic tribe)
Other people
* Dane (name), a surname and a given name (and a list of people with the nam ...
Georg Mohr
Jørgen Mohr (Latinised ''Georg(ius) Mohr''; 1 April 1640 – 26 January 1697) was a Danish mathematician, known for being the first to prove the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem, which states that any geometric construction which can be done with comp ...
, who had previously published a proof in 1672 in an obscure book, ''
Euclides Danicus
''Euclides Danicus'' (the Danish Euclid) is one of three books of mathematics written by Georg Mohr. It was published in 1672 simultaneously in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, in Danish and Dutch respectively. It contains the first proof of the Mohr–Ma ...
''.
This problem was the source of a musical composition called "Mascheroni Circles", performed by
David Stutz
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
on the album
Iolet.
In his ''Adnotationes ad calculum integrale Euleri'' (1790) he published a calculation of what is now known as the
Euler–Mascheroni constant
Euler's constant (sometimes also called the Euler–Mascheroni constant) is a mathematical constant usually denoted by the lowercase Greek letter gamma ().
It is defined as the limiting difference between the harmonic series and the natural l ...
, usually denoted as (gamma).
He died 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. S ...
.
Works
*
External links
*
1750 births
1800 deaths
People from the Province of Bergamo
18th-century Italian mathematicians
Geometers
{{Italy-mathematician-stub