Antoine Parent

Antoine Parent was a French mathematician, born in Paris on 16 September 1666 and dying there on 26 September 1716. In 1700 he wrote on the analytical geometry of three dimensions, and his works were collected and published in three volumes in Paris in 1713. He had the idea of representing any surface by an equation between the three coordinates of each of its points. He also derived the correct formula for the bending of cantilever beams, assuming a central neutral axis and a linear distribution of stress from tension at the top face to equal and opposite compression at the bottom, and so obtained the correct elastic section modulus, the area of the cross section times its depth divided by six. His work had little impact, and many more years passed before scientific principles were regularly applied to the strength of beams in bending.