Niccolo Tartaglia Analysis

The Biography of Niccolo Tartaglia

Kelsey Fairley

MAT 481

References

"Niccolo Tartaglia." Famous Scientists. famousscientists.org. 31 Jul. 2016. Web. 9/10/2017 www.famousscientists.org/niccolo-tartaglia/.

Burton, David. M. (2010). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction, Seventh Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

16th Century Mathematics – Tartaglia, Carnado and Ferrari. (2010). Retrieved September 10, 2017 from http://www.storyofmathematics.com/16th_tartaglia.html.

Saiber, A. (2014). Niccolo Tartaglia’s poetic solution to the cubic equation. Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, 66-77. Retrieved September 10, 2017, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17513472.2014.933552?scroll=top&needAccess=true.

This was considered the “bridge from Aristotle to Galileo”, even though most of his findings were completely wrong at first. His book became popular quickly, there were six editions. This was considered an early example of mathematical physics that we have today. Tartaglia liked to use the same style Euclid did to explain the world physically. About five years before writing the book, Tartaglia ran into a soldier who asked him, “what angle should a cannon make with the ground to achieve the maximum shooting range?” Tartaglia answered, “45 degrees”. He used geometry to answer the question, but then began to think more on the study of ballistics, later he then helped develop the future of physics. Tartaglia was highly influenced by two other famous mathematicians and scientists, Euclid and Aristotle. Tartaglia used Euclid’s study of geometry to analyze his theory of motion, but could not make a connection with Aristotle’s study of physics. This led to many errors during Tartaglia’s study, including a study that he was the first to discover. Tartaglia discovered that a projectile’s path is a continuous curve, this led him to Aristotle’s study that consisted of two types of motion, which is incorrect. Tartaglia relied on Galileo belief that a continuous curve is actually considered as a parabola. Through

Tartaglia also had experiments with acceleration in freefall and air resistance. Galileo became famous for Tartaglia’s discovery of: “A cannonball dropped from a tower would accelerate; the greater the time the ball fell for, the greater the speed it would reach.” Later on, it was told that Galileo was at the Leaning Tower of Pisa dropping cannonballs from different heights and timing them as they fell. This led to the conclusion: “the distance traveled by an object in freefall is directly proportional to the square of the time it has been falling for.” Tartaglia also disagreed with Aristotle’s conclusion that air is required to sustain motion. Tartaglia followed up by saying motion is resisted by air. Tartaglia has also not been the first scientist to accuse Aristotle of being wrong. Tartaglia suggested that “calculations in ballistics are only useful for projectiles whose weight and shape made air resistance insignificant”. This brought Newton’s first law of motion; the law of inertia. Tartaglia also decided to create another version of Euclid’s Elements. Tartaglia wanted to bring a modern, Italian version of the Elements. As he was creating it, he noticed some mistakes, but they were not exactly Euclid’s mistakes. Tartaglia made corrections throughout his creation and added additions where he felt needed. This creation of the Italian Elements was some of Tartaglia’s best work. (Niccolo