Michel Rolle

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Michel Rolle (April 21, 1652 - November 8, 1719) was a French mathematician. He is best known for Rolle's theorem (1691). He also invented the current standardized notation

$\sqrt[n]{x}$

to denote the nth root of $\displaystyle x$ .

[edit] Life

Rolle was born in Ambert, Basse-Auvergne. In 1675, he moved from Ambert to Paris and was elected in 1685 to join the Académie Royale des Sciences and became a Pensionnaire Géometre of the Académie (1699). He had then already been given a pension by Jean-Baptiste Colbert after solving one of Jacques Ozanam's problems.

Rolle was an early critic of calculus, arguing that it was inaccurate and based upon unsound reasoning. He later changed his opinion^{[citation needed]}. He was also the first person presently known to have placed the index in the opening of a radical to denote the n-th root of a number (Cajori, A History of Mathematical Notation).

Rolle died in Paris.