Niccolò Fontana TartagliaDied 13 Dec 1557 (born 1499).Italian mathematician who originated the science of ballistics. His proper name was Niccolo Fontana although he is always known by his nickname, Tartaglia, which means the "stammerer." When the French sacked Brescia in 1512, soldiers killed his father and left young Tartaglia for dead with a sabre wound that cut his jaw and palate. In 1535, by winning a competition to solve cubic equations, he gained fame as the discoverer of the formula for their algebraic solution (which was published in Cardan's Ars Magna, 1545) Tartaglia wrote Nova Scientia (1537) on the application of mathematics to artillery fire. He described new ballistic methods and instruments, including the first firing tables. He was the first Italian translator and publisher of Euclid's Elements (1543). |
