Paul Guldin

Paul Guldin
Paul Guldin Paul Guldin
Born	12 June 1577 Mels, Switzerland
Died	Graz, Austria
Nationality	Swiss
Other names	Habakkuk Guldin
Occupation	Jesuit mathematician astronomer
Known for	Guldinus theorem

Paul Guldin (original name Habakkuk Guldin; 12 June 1577 (Mels) – 3 November 1643 (Graz)) was a Swiss Jesuit mathematician and astronomer. He discovered the Guldinus theorem to determine the surface and the volume of a solid of revolution. (This theorem is also known as the Pappus–Guldinus theorem and Pappus's centroid theorem, attributed to Pappus of Alexandria.) Guldin was noted for his association with the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler. Guldin composed a critique of Cavalieri's method of Indivisibles.

Although of Jewish descent, his parents were Protestants and they brought Guldin up in that faith. He was a professor of mathematics in Graz and Vienna.

In Paolo Casati's astronomical work Terra machinis mota (1658), Casati imagines a dialogue among Guldin, Galileo, and Marin Mersenne on various intellectual problems of cosmology, geography, astronomy and geodesy.

See also

• List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics