Emilie du Chatelet
1706-1749
1706-1749
For more than a thousand years after Hypatia's death in 415, nothing significantly new happened in mathematics in the West. However, the situation began to change towards the end of the Middle Ages. During this time Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo made many new discoveries. Then in the seventeenth century Newton wrote about many new ideas in his book, the Principia. Shortly after this in a time known as the Enlightenment, Emilie du Chatelet was born (Perl 1978).
Emilie was born in France in 1706, to a wealthy family. She began very early in life to show enough promise in the area of academics to convince her father that she was a genius who needed attention. Her love was mathematics. Emilie worked seriously in mathematics until the day she died (ed. Gillispie 1977).
She is however best known for her work, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, a French translation and analysis of Newton's work the Principia. This work contained chapters on planetary phenomena, the shape of the Earth, the precession of the equinoxes, the ebb and flow of the tides, and lastly the motion of planetary satellites (Tee 1987).
This book was not published in full until 1759, after her death. Emilie died suddenly after giving birth to a baby girl in 1749. Her daughter died soon after (Mandic 1995).
Emilie died at the age of 43 and although she was not a creator of original mathematics, her work of translation, commentary and synthesis contributed significantly to the development of Newtonian science in the middle eighteenth century in Europe, as this book made Newton's work available to the French mathematicians and scholars. It remains to this day the only French translation of the work (Tee 1987).
Gillispie, C.C. (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol.3, New York: Charles Scribner, 1970.
Tee, G.J., 'Gabrielle-Emilie Le Tonnelier De Breteuil, Marquise Du Chatelet (1706-1749)', in Women of Mathematics A Biobibliographic Sourcebook , eds. L.S. Grinstein & P.J. Campbell, New York: Greenwood Press, pp. 21-25, 1987.
Mandic, S., Citing Computer References [Online, accessed 13 Oct. 1996]. URL.http://www.scotlsn.edu/lriddle/women/chatelet.htm, 1995.
Perl, T., Biographies of Women Mathematicians and Related Activities, Menlo Park, California: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1978.
Written by Julie Boyd
(University of South Australia, 1996)