Antoine Parent

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