Mathematician:Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille
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Mathematician
French astronomer who named $14$ out of the $88$ constellations.
Observed over $10 \, 000$ stars using just a half-inch refractor.
Constructing astronomical ephemerides and mathematical tables.
Calculated a table of eclipses for $1800$ years.
Determined that Earth is flatter at the South Pole than at the North Pole
Nationality
French
History
- Born: 15 March 1713 in Rumigny-en-Thiérache, France
- 1750 -- 1754: Studied the sky at the Cape of Good Hope in present day South Africa
- Died: 21 March 1762 in Paris, France
Publications
- 1741: Leçons élémentaires de Mathématiques
- 1743: Leçons élémentaires de Mécanique
- 1746: Leçons élémentaires d'Astronomie
- 1750: Leçons élémentaires d'Optique
- 1755: Ephémérides
- 1756: Table des Ascensions Droites et des Declinaisons Apparentes des Etoiles australes renfermées dans le tropique du Capricorne ...
- 1757: Astronomiae Fundamenta Novissimus
- 1758: Tabulae Solares
- 1763: Coelum Australe Stelliferum
- 1776: Journal historique de voyage au Cap de Bonne-Espérance par feu M l'abbé de La Caille ... (published posthumously)
- 1779: Leçons élémentaires d'Astronomie ($4$th ed.) (augmented by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande)
Also known as
Sometimes reported as de la Caille.
Sources
- John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- 2008: Ian Stewart: Taming the Infinite ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $5$: Eternal Triangles: The number $e$