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Alexis Clairaut

Alexis Clairaut

1713 CE–1765 CE · Paris

Alexis Claude Clairaut (; French: [alɛksi klod klɛʁo]; 13 May 1713 – 17 May 1765) was a French mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was a prominent Newtonian whose work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had outlined in the Principia of 1687. Clairaut was one of the key figures in the expedition to the Lapland that helped to confirm Newton's deduction of the figure of the Earth. In that context, Clairaut deduced what is now known as Clairaut's theorem. He also tackled the gravitational three-body problem, being the first to obtain a satisfactory result for the apsidal precession of the Moon's orbit. In mathematics he is also credited with Clairaut's theorem on mixed partial derivatives, Clairaut's equation, and Clairaut's relation in differential geometry.

Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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About Paris

Paris, the capital of France, was a centre of European Buddhist scholarship. The Sri Lankan scholar-monk Walpola Rahula taught and researched there, associated with the Sorbonne, during the period in which he engaged with Western academic study of Buddhism.

In Paris at the same time

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Émilie du Châtelet, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Roger Joseph Boscovich, Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, Jean le Rond d'Alembert

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Alexis ClairautShapedÉmilie du Châtelet