Mathematical Treasures - Varignon's Elements of Mathematics

Pierre Varignon (1654–1722) was a French Jesuit priest and a noted mathematician. Much of his work was devoted to applying calculus to problems in mechanics and dynamics. Varignon was a respected and influential teacher of mathematics; in 1731, after his death, his teaching notes were published under the title Élémens de Mathématiques. In this book is found the statement that would become known as “Varignon’s Parallelogram Theorem”—namely, the figure formed when the midpoints of a quadrilateral are joined in order is a parallelogram.

On pages 86 and 87, Varignon discussed some properties of prisms and in Theorem XLVI states that the volume of a sphere is equal to 2/3 the volume of its circumscribing cylinder. Table 13 provides the illustrations for Corollary 1, page 86 and Theorem XLVI, page 87.

Here on pages 116 and 117, Varignon considered some applied problems. Table 19 contains the supporting figures.

These images from its George Arthur Plimpton Collection are presented through the courtesy of the Columbia University Libraries.

Index to Mathematical Treasures