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Evangelista Torricelli and the “Common Bond of Truth” in Greek Mathematics

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 87; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4169/math.mag.87.3.174

1930-0980

Andrew Leahy,

Historical Studies in Science

SummaryIn 1664, Evangelista Torricelli published his Opera Geometrica, one of the most important—yet most unheralded—publications in the history of integral calculus. In the chapter de Dimensione Parabolae, Torricelli uses the newfound analytic techniques of Bonaventura Cavalieri to prove, among other things, that all of the major geometrical works of Archimedes—Quadrature of the Parabola, On the Sphere and the Cylinder, On Spirals, and On the Equilibrium of Planes—are joined by a “common bond of truth.” In this article, we show how Torricelli establishes this connection and discuss briefly the impact it had on subsequent mathematicians such as John Wallis.