Tommaso Ceva (December 20, 1648 – February 3, 1737) was an Italian

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

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 ...

from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He was the brother of

Giovanni Ceva Giovanni Ceva (September 1, 1647 – May 13, 1734) was an Italian mathematician widely known for proving Ceva's theorem in elementary geometry. His brother, Tommaso Ceva was also a well-known poet and mathematician. Life Ceva received his educat ...

Biography

From a wealthy Milanese family, Ceva entered the Society of Jesus in 1663. He taught mathematics and rhetoric at the Jesuit College of Brera in Milan for thirty-eight years. His most famous student was

Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri (; 5 September 1667 – 25 October 1733) was an Italian Jesuit priest, scholastic philosopher, and mathematician. Saccheri was born in Sanremo. He entered the Jesuit order in 1685 and was ordained as a priest in 1694. ...

. He was one the main representatives of

Celia Grillo Borromeo Clelia Grillo Borromeo Arese or Celia Grillo Borromeo (1684 – 23 August 1777) was an Italian (Genovese) natural philosopher, mathematician and scientist. Life and education Borromeo was born in Genoa, the daughter of duke Marcantonio of Mondr ...

's Academia Vigilantium.

Joseph I Joseph I or Josef I may refer to: *Joseph I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch in 1266–1275 and 1282–1283 *Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678–1711) *Joseph I (Chaldean Patriarch) (reigned 1681–1696) *Joseph I of Portugal (1750–1777) ...

named Ceva Caesarian Theologian early in the 18th century. His first scientific work, ''De natura gravium'' (1669), dealt with physical subjects - such as

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

and

free fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on i ...

- in a philosophical way. His only mathematical work, published in 1699 was the ''Opuscula Mathematica'' which dealt with

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

, gravity and

arithmetic Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...

. Ceva designed an instrument to divide a

right angle In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of exactly 90 Degree (angle), degrees or radians corresponding to a quarter turn (geometry), turn. If a Line (mathematics)#Ray, ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the ad ...

into a specified number of equal parts. He was also a noted

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and dedicated a significant amount of his time to this task. He was made a fellow of the

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

in 1718 and was in correspondence with

Vincenzo Viviani Vincenzo Viviani (April 5, 1622 – September 22, 1703) was an Italian mathematician and scientist. He was a pupil of Torricelli and a disciple of Galileo.

and

Luigi Guido Grandi Guido Grandi Dom Guido Grandi, O.S.B. Cam. (1 October 1671 – 4 July 1742) was an Italian monk, priest, philosopher, theologian, mathematician, and engineer. Life Grandi was born on 1 October 1671 in Cremona, Italy and christened Luigi ...

. He died in Milan in 1737.

Bibliography

* Ramat, Raffaello, "La critica del padre Ceva," Civiltà moderna, 10 (1938), 385-95, and 11 (1939), 139-66. (Reprinted in Sette contributi agli studi di storia della letteratura italiana, (Florence, 1947), pp. 5-44. * * *

External links

* * * 1648 births 1737 deaths Scientists from Milan 17th-century Italian mathematicians 18th-century Italian mathematicians 18th-century Italian Jesuits 17th-century Italian Jesuits Jesuit scientists {{Italy-RC-clergy-stub

Biography

Bibliography

See also

External links