Editing Pierre Varignon

{{Short description|French mathematician}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Pierre Varignon
| image             = Pierre Varignon.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           =
| birth_date        = 1654
| birth_place       = [[Caen]], [[France]]
| death_date        = 23 December 1722
| death_place       = [[Paris]], France
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = French
| field             = [[Mathematics]]
| work_institutions = [[Académie Royale des Sciences]], [[Collège de France|Collège Royal]], [[Collège des Quatre-Nations|Collège Mazarin]], [[Prussian Academy of Sciences|Berlin Academy]], [[Royal Society]]
| alma_mater        = 
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Nicolas Malebranche]]
| doctoral_students = [[Jacques Cassini]]
| known_for         = [[statics]], [[mechanics]], [[infinitesimal calculus]], [[convergent series|convergence of series]], [[water clock]], [[Mechanical explanations of gravitation|mechanical explanation of gravitation]], [[Varignon's theorem]]
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| prizes            = 
| religion          = 
| footnotes         = 
| spouse            = 
| children          =  
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}

'''Pierre Varignon''' ({{IPA|fr|pjɛʁ vaʁiɲɔ̃}}; 1654 – 23 December 1722) was a French [[mathematician]]. He was educated at the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] College and the [[University of Caen]], where he received his [[Magister Artium|M.A.]] in 1682. He took [[Holy Orders]] the following year.

Varignon gained his first exposure to mathematics by reading [[Euclid]] and then [[René Descartes|Descartes']] ''[[La Géométrie]]''. He  became professor of mathematics at the [[Collège des Quatre-Nations|Collège Mazarin]] in Paris in 1688 and was elected to the [[Académie Royale des Sciences]] in the same year. In 1704, he held the departmental chair at Collège Mazarin and also became professor of mathematics at the [[Collège de France|Collège Royal]]. He was elected to the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences|Berlin Academy]] in 1713 and to the [[Royal Society]] in 1718. Many of his works were published in Paris in 1725, three years after his death. His lectures at Mazarin were published in ''[https://iris.univ-lille.fr/handle/1908/3119 Elements de mathematique]'' in 1731.

Varignon was a friend of [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]], and the [[Bernoulli family]]. Varignon's principal contributions were to graphic [[statics]] and [[mechanics]]. Except for [[Guillaume de l'Hôpital|l'Hôpital]], Varignon was the earliest and strongest French advocate of [[infinitesimal calculus]], and exposed the errors in [[Michel Rolle]]'s critique thereof. He recognized the importance of a test for the [[convergent series|convergence of series]], but analytical difficulties prevented his success. Nevertheless, he simplified the proofs of many propositions in mechanics, adapted Leibniz's calculus to the inertial mechanics of Newton's ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'', and treated mechanics in terms of the composition of forces in ''Projet d'une nouvelle mécanique'' in 1687. Among Varignon's other works was a 1699 publication concerning the application of differential calculus to fluid flow and to [[water clock]]s. In 1690, he created a [[Mechanical explanations of gravitation|mechanical explanation of gravitation]]. In 1702, he applied calculus to spring-driven clocks.  In 1704, he invented the U-tube [[manometer]], a device capable of measuring [[rarefaction]] in gases.<ref name="Kaye">{{cite book 
|last=Kaye
|first=Brian H.
|date=2008 
|title=Golf Balls, Boomerangs and Asteroids 
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3jQNKC5dp8C&q=varignon+manometer&pg=PA145 
|location=New York 
|publisher=John Wiley & Sons
|page=145 
|isbn=9783527614820}}</ref>

==Works==
[[File:Varignon, Pierre – Traité du mouvement et de la mesure des eaux coulantes et jaillissantes, 1736 – BEIC 12415414.jpg|thumb|left|''Traité du mouvement et de la mesure des eaux coulantes et jaillissantes'', 1736]]
* {{Cite book|title=Projet d'une nouvelle mechanique|volume=|publisher=Edme Martin, veuve|location=Paris|year=1687|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=4603405}}
* {{Cite book|title=Traité du mouvement et de la mesure des eaux coulantes et jaillissantes|volume=|publisher=Lelio Dalla Volpe|location=Bologna|year=1736|language=fr|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=12415414}}

==See also==
*[[Varignon's theorem]]
*[[Varignon's theorem (mechanics)]]
*[[List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{Rouse History of Mathematics}}
*{{MathGenealogy|id=112689}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varignon, Pierre}}
[[Category:1654 births]]
[[Category:1722 deaths]]
[[Category:Clergy from Caen]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Paris]]
[[Category:17th-century French Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:18th-century French Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:17th-century French mathematicians]]
[[Category:18th-century French mathematicians]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:French mathematical analysts]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Catholic clergy scientists]]
[[Category:University of Caen Normandy alumni]]
[[Category:Scientists from Caen]]