Bonaventura Cavalieri

Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri (* 1598 probably in Milan; † 3 December or November 30, 1647 in Bologna, with scholarly name Cavalerius ) was an Italian Jesuat, mathematician and astronomer.

Life

Bonaventura Cavalieri worked in the field of geometry, and taught at the University of Bologna. At the same time he was prior of a Jesuatenklosters. His calculations of surfaces and volumes take methods of calculus anticipated.

Cavalieri was known mainly by the principle of indivisibles. This principle had already been used in a pre- 1604 and 1615 by Johannes Kepler. In the early version of 1635 is assumed that a line of an infinite number of points, there is no size, a surface of an infinite number of lines without width and a body of an infinite number of surfaces without height. In response to objections, he formulated the principle of new and published it in 1647 as a defense of the theory. 1653 his works were later reissued with corrections.

The Cavalierische principle states that two bodies have the same volume, if all plane sections agree with each other that run parallel to a predetermined base level and in matching intervals.

Stefano degli Angeli (1623-1697) was his pupil. He wished Michelangelo Ricci and Evangelista Torricelli as editor of his posthumous works. Torricelli died but shortly before him, and Ricci had no time. They were not published until 1919.

Works

• Lo specchio ustorio, 1632
• Geometria indivisibilibus, 1635
• Exercitationes Geometricae, 1647

Honors

• To him, the asteroid ( 18059 ) Cavalieri was named in honor.