Biography of michel rolle

French mathematician

For other people with similar names, see Michael Roll (disambiguation).

Michel Rolle (21 April 1652 – 8 November 1719) was a French mathematician. He is best known for Rolle's theorem (1691). He is also the co-inventor in Europe^[1] of Gaussian elimination (1690).

Life

Rolle was born in Ambert, Basse-Auvergne. Rolle, the son of a shopkeeper, received only an elementary education. He married early and as a young man struggled to support his family on the meager wages of a transcriber for notaries and attorney. In spite of his financial problems and minimal education, Rolle studied algebra and Diophantine analysis (a branch of number theory) on his own.

He moved from Ambert to Paris in 1675.

Michel Rolle -

Rolle's fortune changed dramatically in 1682 when he published an elegant solution of a difficult, unsolved problem in Diophantine analysis. The public recognition of his achievement led to a patronage under minister Louvois, a job as an ele Michel Rolle (1652 - 1719) - Biography - MacTutor History of ... RON