Top questions
Who was Jean le Rond d'Alembert?
Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (1717 to 1783) was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher and music theorist, born in Paris. He was co-editor of the Encyclopédie with Denis Diderot, for which he wrote more than a thousand articles, and he was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1741.
What is d'Alembert best known for?
D'Alembert's most famous achievements include the wave equation, also known as d'Alembert's equation, and d'Alembert's formula for solving it. In French the fundamental theorem of algebra is named in his honour. His most famous work, the Traité de dynamique of 1743, set out his own laws of motion.
What is d'Alembert's paradox?
D'Alembert's paradox is the result, which he wrote about in 1752, that the drag on a body immersed in an inviscid, incompressible fluid is zero. It is one of several results named after him, alongside the wave equation, d'Alembert's formula, his ratio test for series and the d'Alembert operator.
What was d'Alembert's role in the Encyclopédie?
When the Encyclopédie was organised in the late 1740s, d'Alembert was engaged as co-editor, for mathematics and science, with Denis Diderot, and he served until a series of crises temporarily interrupted publication in 1757. He wrote over a thousand articles for it, including the famous Preliminary Discourse.
Where did d'Alembert study?
At the age of 12 d'Alembert entered the Collège des Quatre-Nations, also known as the Collège Mazarin, where he studied philosophy, law and the arts and graduated as baccalauréat en arts in 1735. He then spent two years in law school and was nominated avocat in 1738, while also pursuing medicine and mathematics.
What did d'Alembert contribute to music theory?
In 1752 d'Alembert published a survey of Jean-Philippe Rameau's theories, Eléments de musique théorique et pratique. He argued that three principles, not Rameau's single idea of the corps sonore, were needed to generate the major mode, the minor mode and the identity of octaves. Bitter exchanges later ended his friendship with Rameau.
Which academies did d'Alembert join?
D'Alembert was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1741 after several failed attempts, to the Berlin Academy in 1746 and as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1748. He joined the Académie Française in 1754, becoming its Permanent Secretary on 9 April 1772, and in 1781 was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
