Alexis Fontaine des Bertins
Encyclopedia
Alexis Fontaine, known as Alexis Fontaine des Bertins (13 August 1704, Claveyson
– 21 August 1771, Cuiseaux
) was a French
mathematician. He was a patron
and teacher of Jean-Jacques de Marguerie
.
, the brachistochrone curve
and orthogonal trajectories
.
Claveyson
Claveyson is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France.-Population:...
– 21 August 1771, Cuiseaux
Cuiseaux
Cuiseaux is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.-References:*...
) was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
mathematician. He was a patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
and teacher of Jean-Jacques de Marguerie
Jean-Jacques de Marguerie
Jean-Jacques de Marguerie was a French naval officer and mathematician.-Life:He began his studies at the collège at Caen, discovering Euclid's Elements aged around 18 and soon moving to study mathematics alone. He made such progress in this area that the geometer Alexis Fontaine, who he met in...
.
Life
He first got a taste for maths by reading the Géométrie de l'infini of Fontenelle and gave solutions to the problems of the tautochrone curveTautochrone curve
A tautochrone or isochrone curve is the curve for which the time taken by an object sliding without friction in uniform gravity to its lowest point is independent of its starting point...
, the brachistochrone curve
Brachistochrone curve
A Brachistochrone curve , or curve of fastest descent, is the curve between two points that is covered in the least time by a point-like body that starts at the first point with zero speed and is constrained to move along the curve to the second point, under the action of constant gravity and...
and orthogonal trajectories
Orthogonal trajectory
In mathematics, orthogonal trajectories are a family of curves in the plane that intersect a given family of curves at right angles. The problem is classical, but is now understood by means of complex analysis; see for example harmonic conjugate....
.
Publications
- Mémoires donnés à l'Académie royale des sciences, non imprimés dans leur temps (1764)
- Traité de calcul différentiel et intégral, par M. Fontaine, de l'Académie royale des sciences, pour servir de suite aux mémoires de la même Académie (1770)
External links
- Biography and bibliography
- R Taton, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
- J M C de Condorcet, Eloge de M Fontaine, Histoire de l'Académie royale des sciences 1771 (Paris, 1774), 105-116.J L Greenberg, Alexis Fontaine's route to the calculus of several variables, Historia Math. 11 (1) (1984), 22-38.
- J L Greenberg, Alexis Fontaine's integration of ordinary differential equations and the origins of the calculus of several variables, Ann. of Sci. 39 (1) (1982), 1-36.
- J L Greenberg, Alexis Fontaine's 'fluxio- differential method' and the origins of the calculus of several variables, Ann. of Sci. 38 (3) (1981), 251-290.