Area under Arc of Cycloid/Historical Note

Historical Note on Area under Arc of Cycloid

The proof of the Area under Arc of Cycloid was published in $1644$ by Evangelista Torricelli.

Galileo, by cutting out templates and measuring their masses, had previously estimated the area as being approximately $3$ times the area of the generating circle.

It is believed that Gilles Personne de Roberval found this result earlier than Torricelli, but lost priority when he failed to publish his proof.


Sources

  • 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.15$: Torricelli ($\text {1608}$ – $\text {1647}$)
  • 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {B}.21$: The Cycloid
  • 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): cycloid
  • 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): cycloid