Mathematician:Jean le Rond d'Alembert

Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, physicist and philosopher best known for his contribution to the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra - he produced a flawed proof which was later patched up by Gauss.

Nationality
French

History

 * Born: 16 November 1717, Paris
 * 1741: Elected into the Académie des Sciences, after several failed attempts
 * 1746: Elected to the Berlin Academy
 * 1754: Elected a member of the Académie française
 * 9 April 1772: Became Permanent Secretary of the Académie française
 * Died: 29 October 1783, Paris

Theorems and Definitions

 * An initial version of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, corrected by Gauss (in France it is also known as D'Alembert's Theorem or the D'Alembert-Gauss Theorem)
 * D'Alembertian Operator
 * D'Alembert's Paradox
 * D'Alembert System
 * D'Alembert's Formula
 * Famously expressed a belief in Croix ou Pile in the Gambler's Fallacy: the more times a coin comes up tails, the more likely it then is to come up heads.

Books and Papers

 * July 1739: Pointed out errors in Reynaud's standard 1708 with L'analyse démontrée in a communication to the Académie des Sciences.


 * 1740: Mémoire sur la réfraction des corps solides (Memorandum on the refraction of solid bodies), recognised by Clairaut.


 * 1743: Traité de dynamique


 * 1751 - 1765: Co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie.


 * Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot


 * Croix ou Pile