Mathematician:Jean le Rond d'Alembert

Mathematician

French mathematician, physicist and philosopher best known for his contribution to the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra -- he produced a flawed proof which was later patched up by Gauss.

Devised a technique for solving the linear second order ODE with constant coefficients whose auxiliary equation has repeated roots.

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 16 November 1717, Paris
• 1741: Elected into the Académie des Sciences, after several failed attempts
• 1746: Elected to the Berlin Academy
• 1754: Elected a member of the Académie française
• 9 April 1772: Became Permanent Secretary of the Académie française
• Died: 29 October 1783, Paris

Theorems and Definitions

• An initial version of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, corrected by Gauss (in France it is also known as D'Alembert's Theorem or the D'Alembert-Gauss Theorem)
• D'Alembertian Operator
• D'Alembert's Paradox
• D'Alembert System
• D'Alembert's Formula
• D'Alembert's Principle
• D'Alembert's Test (also known as the Cauchy Ratio Test, for Augustin Louis Cauchy, or just the Ratio Test)

• Famously expressed a belief in Croix ou Pile in the Gambler's Fallacy: the more times a coin comes up tails, the more likely it then is to come up heads.

Results named for Jean le Rond d'Alembert can be found here.

Publications

• July 1739: Pointed out errors in Reynaud's standard 1708 with L'analyse démontrée in a communication to the Académie des Sciences.

• 1740: Mémoire sur la réfraction des corps solides (Memorandum on the refraction of solid bodies), recognised by Clairaut.

• 1743: Traité de dynamique

• 1751 - 1765: Co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie.

• Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot

• Croix ou Pile

Also known as

Full name: Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Jean le Rond d'Alembert": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1971: Allan Clark: Elements of Abstract Algebra ... (previous) ... (next): Introduction
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): d'Alembert, Jean le Rond (1717-83)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): d'Alembert, Jean le Rond (1717-83)
• 2021: Richard Earl and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (6th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): D'Alembert, Jean-Baptiste le Rond (1717-83)