Gabrio Piola (15 July 1794 – 9 November 1850) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, member of the Lombardo Institute of Science, Letters and Arts. He studied in particular the mechanics of the continuous, linking his name to the

tensor In mathematics, a tensor is an algebraic object that describes a multilinear relationship between sets of algebraic objects associated with a vector space. Tensors may map between different objects such as vectors, scalars, and even other ...

s called Piola–Kirchhoff.

Biography

Count Gabrio Piola Daverio was born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in a rich and aristocratic family. Initially he studied at home and then at the local high school. Given his exceptional ability in mathematics and physics, he started to study mathematics at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia (, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; ) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest un ...

, as a student of

Vincenzo Brunacci Vincenzo Brunacci (3 March 1768 – 16 June 1818) was an Italian mathematician born in Florence.An It ...

, obtaining his doctorate on 24 June 1816. He didn’t follow an academic career even though he was offered the chair of Applied Mathematics in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

; he preferred dedicating himself to private teaching. One of his students was

Francesco Brioschi Francesco Brioschi (22 December 1824 – 13 December 1897) was an Italian mathematician. Biography Brioschi was born in Milan in 1824. He graduated from the Collegio Borromeo in 1847. From 1850 he taught analytical mechanics at the Universit ...

who became Professor of rational mechanics at

Pavia Pavia ( , ; ; ; ; ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, in Northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino (river), Ticino near its confluence with the Po (river), Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was a major polit ...

and President of the Academy of High Schools. His research activity started in 1824, winning a competition and related prize at the Lombard Institute of Milan, with a long article on the mechanics of

Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaCauchy Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy ( , , ; ; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus (thereby creating real a ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

: in effect the journal contained some of Cauchy’s fundamental works, translated from French into Italian. Count Piola was also a person of great culture who dedicated himself to the study of history and philosophy: amongst the fruits of his studies he wrote about

Bonaventura Cavalieri Bonaventura Francesco Cavalieri (; 1598 – 30 November 1647) was an Italian mathematician and a Jesuati, Jesuate. He is known for his work on the problems of optics and motion (physics), motion, work on indivisibles, the precursors of infin ...

. He was a member of many scientific societies, amongst which the Italian Society of Science, and from 1825 he was part of the Roman Academy of the Catholic Religion. He was a fervent Catholic, as also was Cauchy. For the latter Piola was a reference point for his stay in Italy from 1830 to 1833. He additionally taught religion for twenty-four years in a parish in

and was the friend of

Antonio Rosmini Antonio Francesco Davide Ambrogio Rosmini-Serbati, IC (; 25 March 17971 July 1855) was an Italian Catholic priest and philosopher. He founded the Rosminians, officially the Institute of Charity, and pioneered the concept of social justice an ...

, at that time the most important exponent of Catholic spirituality. He was mainly involved in continuum mechanics, concerning fluids and solids. The Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor and Piola transformation bear his name. Piazzale Piola and stazione Piola in

are named after him. He died in

Giussano Giussano ( ) is a (municipality) in the province of Monza and Brianza, in the Italian region Lombardy, located about north of Milan. Giussano borders the following municipalities: Inverigo, Carugo, Arosio, Briosco, Mariano Comense, Ca ...

Brianza Brianza (, ) is a geographical, historical and cultural area of Italy, at the foot of the Alps, in the northwest of Lombardy, between Milan and Lake Como. Geography Brianza extends from the Canzo area, North of Monza (approximately ...

, on 9 November 1850.

Writings

* Gabrio Piola, ''Sull'applicazione de' principj della meccanica analitica del Lagrange ai principali problemi. Memoria di Gabrio Piola presentata al concorso del premio e coronata dall'I.R. Istituto di Scienze, ecc. nella solennita del giorno 4 ottobre 1824'', Milano, Imp. Regia stamperia, 1825 * Gabrio Piola, ''Sulla trasformazione delle formole integrali duplicate e triplicate'', Modena, Tipografia Camerale, 1828 * Gabrio Piola, ''Sulla teorica delle funzioni discontinue'', Modena, Tipografia Camerale, 1830 * Gabrio Piola, ''Memoria sulla Teorica del Pendolo'', Milano, Imp. Reg. Stamperia, 1831 * Gabrio Piola, ''Memoria sull'applicazione del calcolo delle differenze alle questioni dell'analisi indeterminata'', Padova, Tip. del Seminario, 1831 * Gabrio Piola, ''La meccanica de' corpi naturalmente estesi: trattata col calcolo delle variazioni'', Milano, Giusti, 1833 * Gabrio Piola, ''Nuova analisi per tutte le questioni della meccanica molecolare'', Modena, Tipografia camerale, 1835 * Gabrio Piola, ''Nuove ricerche per una risoluzione più rigorosa di vari problemi sul moto dell'acqua: memoria'', Milano, Bernardoni, 1840 * Gabrio Piola, ''Trattato sul calcolo degli integrali definiti: parte 1'', Milano: Giusti, 1839 * Gabrio Piola, ''Sulla legge della permanenza delle molecole de' fluidi in moto alle superficie libere'', Milano, Bernardoni, 1843 * Gabrio Piola, ''Sul moto permanente dell'acqua'', Milano, G. Bernardoni e C., 1845 * Gabrio Piola, ''Memoria intorno alle equazioni fondamentali del movimento di corpi qualsivogliono considerati secondo la naturale loro forma e costituzione'', Modena, Tipi del R.D. Camera, 1846 * Gabrio Piola, ''Di un principio controverso della Meccanica analitica di Lagrange e delle molteplici sue applicazioni'' (memoria postuma pubblicata per cura del prof. Francesco Brioschi), Milano, Bernardoni, 1856

Writings on line

Notes

References

* * * * F. dell'Isola, G. Maier, U. Perego, U. Andreaus, R. Esposito, S. Forest, "The complete works of Gabrio Piola: Volume I - Commented English Translation". Springer, (2014).

. * *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Piola, Gabrio Mathematicians from the Austrian Empire 19th-century Italian mathematicians 19th-century Italian physicists 1794 births 1850 deaths Scientists from Milan University of Pavia alumni