Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert
| Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert | |
|---|---|
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert, pastel by Maurice Quentin de La Tour
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| Born |
16 November 1717 Paris, France |
| Died | 29 October 1783 (aged 65) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Fields |
Mathematics Mechanics Physics philosophy |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Notable students | Pierre-Simon Laplace |
| Known for |
D'Alembert criterion D'Alembert force D'Alembert's form of the principle of virtual work D'Alembert's formula D'Alembert equation D'Alembert's equation D'Alembert operator D'Alembert's paradox D'Alembert's principle D'Alembert system D'Alembert–Euler condition Tree of Diderot and d'Alembert Cauchy–Riemann equations Fluid mechanics Encyclopédie Three-body problem |
| Notable awards | Fellow of the Royal Society Follow of the Institut de France |
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (/ˌdæləmˈbɛər/;French: [ʒɑ̃ batist lə ʁɔ̃ dalɑ̃bɛːʁ]; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie. D'Alembert's formula for obtaining solutions to the wave equation is named after him. The Wave equation is sometimes referred to as d'Alembert's equation.
Born in Paris, d'Alembert was the natural son of the writer Claudine Guérin de Tencin and the chevalier Louis-Camus Destouches, an artillery officer. Destouches was abroad at the time of d'Alembert's birth. Days after birth his mother left him on the steps of the Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris church. According to custom, he was named after the patron saint of the church. D'Alembert was placed in an orphanage for foundling children, but his father found him and placed him with the wife of a glazier, Madame Rousseau, with whom he lived for nearly 50 years. Destouches secretly paid for the education of Jean le Rond, but did not want his paternity officially recognised.
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