MATH 4400, History of Mathematics - Lecture 8

MATH 4400, History of Mathematics
Lecture 8: Late18th to early 19th Centuries
Professor: Peter Gibson
[email protected]
http://people.math.yorku.ca/pcgibson/math4400
November 10, 2015
Political Turmoil in France
The Age of Enlightenment was a precursor to radical political
developments in France (and elsewhere) toward the end of the 18th
century.
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Political Turmoil in France
The Age of Enlightenment was a precursor to radical political
developments in France (and elsewhere) toward the end of the 18th
century.
P. Gibson (YorkU)
Math 4400
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The French Revolution changed completely the political landscape
the Tennis Court Oath, followed by the storming of the Bastille (1789)
the execution of Louis XIV (1793)
the Reign of Terror (1793-1794)
military adventures outside of France
coup d’état by Napolean Bonaparte (1799)
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The Reign of Terror saw tens of thousands of summary executions
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Napoléon, who was in power from 1799-1815 conquered much of Europe
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Napoléon suffered a defeat in 1812 on the Russian front.
In 1814, after further defeats, he abdicated and was exiled to Elba.
He escaped, returned to Marseille, and regained power before finally
being defeated at Waterloo by a coalition of British and Prussian
forces.
He was then exiled to St. Helena, where he died in 1821.
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Despite the political turmoil, French mathematics flourished.
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Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813)
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Born in Turin
1755, professor of Mathematics at the Scool of Artillery in Turin
1766, summoned to Berlin by Frederick the Great
“it is necessary that the greatest geometer of Europe should live near
the greatest of kings”
1786, death of Frederick; Lagrange moves to Paris
1795, professor at the Ecole normale
1797, professor at the Ecole polytechnique
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Important works of Lagrange
Sur la résolution des équations numériques (1767)
Méchanique analytique (1788)
Théorie des fonctions analytiques (1797)
Leçons sur le calcul des fonctions (1801)
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There were many other prominent French mathematicians besides
Lagrange:
Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717-1783)
Adrien-Marie Legendre (1752-1833)
Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
Siméon-Denis Poisson (1781-1840)
Augustin Cauchy (1789-1857)
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Pierre-Simon Laplace (1747-1827) was a professor at the Ecole militaire in
Paris.
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He wrote some important mathematical works of the time:
Méchanique céleste (5 volumes) (1799-1825)
Théorie analytique des probabilités (1812)
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A (later) comtemporary of these French mathematicians was Carl Friedrich
Gauss (1777-1855)
Gauss is considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
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As a youth, Gauss was brought to the attention of the Duke of
Brunswick, who later supported him.
He studied at the University of Göttingen (1795-1798), and then
returned to Brunswick.
After the death of the Duke of Brunswick in 1807, Gauss was
appointed director of the observatory at Göttingen, where he
remained.
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