Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa
Encyclopedia
Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa was a Jesuit mathematician
who contributed to the understanding of logarithm
s, particularly as area
s under a hyperbola
.
Alphonse de Sarasa was born in 1618, in Nieuwpoort in Flanders. In 1632 he was admitted as a novice
in Ghent
. It was there that he worked alongside Gregoire de Saint-Vincent
whose ideas he developed, exploited, and promulgated. According to Sommervogel (1896), Alphonse de Sarasa also held academic positions in Antwerp and Brussels.
In 1649 Alphonse de Sarasa published Solutio problematis a R.P. Marino Mersenne Minimo propositi. This book was in response to Marin Mersenne
’s pamphlet “Reflexiones Physico-mathematicae” which reviewed Saint-Vincent’s Opus Geometricum and posed this challenge:
R.P. Burn (2001) explains that the term logarithm was used differently in the seventeenth century. They were any arithmetic progression
which corresponded to a geometric progression
. Burn says, in reviewing de Sarasa’s popularization of de Saint-Vincent, and concurring with Moritz Cantor
, that “the relationship between logarithms and the hyperbola was found by Saint-Vincent in all but name”.
Burn quotes de Sarasa on this point: “…the foundation of the teaching embracing logarithms are contained” in Saint-Vincent’s Opus Geometricum, part 4 of Book 6, de Hyperbola.
Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa died in Brussels in 1667.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
who contributed to the understanding of logarithm
Logarithm
The logarithm of a number is the exponent by which another fixed value, the base, has to be raised to produce that number. For example, the logarithm of 1000 to base 10 is 3, because 1000 is 10 to the power 3: More generally, if x = by, then y is the logarithm of x to base b, and is written...
s, particularly as area
Area
Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...
s under a hyperbola
Hyperbola
In mathematics a hyperbola is a curve, specifically a smooth curve that lies in a plane, which can be defined either by its geometric properties or by the kinds of equations for which it is the solution set. A hyperbola has two pieces, called connected components or branches, which are mirror...
.
Alphonse de Sarasa was born in 1618, in Nieuwpoort in Flanders. In 1632 he was admitted as a novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
. It was there that he worked alongside Gregoire de Saint-Vincent
Grégoire de Saint-Vincent
Grégoire de Saint-Vincent , a Jesuit, was a mathematician who discovered that the area under a rectangular hyperbola is the same over [a,b] as over [c,d] when a/b = c/d...
whose ideas he developed, exploited, and promulgated. According to Sommervogel (1896), Alphonse de Sarasa also held academic positions in Antwerp and Brussels.
In 1649 Alphonse de Sarasa published Solutio problematis a R.P. Marino Mersenne Minimo propositi. This book was in response to Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics"...
’s pamphlet “Reflexiones Physico-mathematicae” which reviewed Saint-Vincent’s Opus Geometricum and posed this challenge:
- Given three arbitrary magnitudes, rational or irrational, and given the logarithms of the two, to find the logarithm of the third geometrically.
R.P. Burn (2001) explains that the term logarithm was used differently in the seventeenth century. They were any arithmetic progression
Arithmetic progression
In mathematics, an arithmetic progression or arithmetic sequence is a sequence of numbers such that the difference between the consecutive terms is constant...
which corresponded to a geometric progression
Geometric progression
In mathematics, a geometric progression, also known as a geometric sequence, is a sequence of numbers where each term after the first is found by multiplying the previous one by a fixed non-zero number called the common ratio. For example, the sequence 2, 6, 18, 54, ... is a geometric progression...
. Burn says, in reviewing de Sarasa’s popularization of de Saint-Vincent, and concurring with Moritz Cantor
Moritz Cantor
Moritz Benedikt Cantor was a German historian of mathematics.He was born at Mannheim, Germany. He came from a family that had emigrated to the Netherlands from Portugal, another branch of which had established itself in Russia, where Georg Cantor was born...
, that “the relationship between logarithms and the hyperbola was found by Saint-Vincent in all but name”.
Burn quotes de Sarasa on this point: “…the foundation of the teaching embracing logarithms are contained” in Saint-Vincent’s Opus Geometricum, part 4 of Book 6, de Hyperbola.
Alphonse Antonio de Sarasa died in Brussels in 1667.