Mathematician:Alexis Claude Clairaut

Mathematician

French mathematician, astronomer and geophysicist. Worked out the shape of the Earth.

Best known in mathematics for Clairaut's (differential) equation.

Credited with inventing the technique (independently of Leonhard Paul Euler and Alexis Fontaine des Bertins) of the use of integrating factors.

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 7 May 1713, Paris, France
• Died: 17 May 1765, Paris, France

Theorems and Definitions

• Clairaut's Form

• Clairaut's Theorem (also known as Schwarz Theorem, for Karl Hermann Amandus Schwarz)
• Clairaut's Differential Equation, sometimes called just Clairaut's Equation.
• Clairaut's Relation

Results named for Alexis Claude Clairaut can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Alexis Claude Clairaut can be found here.

Publications

• 1726: Quatre Problèmes sur de Nouvelles Courbes (at age 13)
• 1731: Recherches sur les Courbes a Double Courbure
• 1733: Sur Quelques Questions de Maximis et Minimis
• 1741: Elements de Géometrie
• 1743: Théorie de la Figure de la Terre, Tirée des Principes de l'Hydrostatique
• 1749: Elements d'Algèbre (used for teaching in French schools for many years)
• 1752: Théorie de la Lune

Also known as

Sometimes reported as de Clairault.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Alexis Claude Clairaut": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Clairaut, Alexis Claude (1713-65)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Clairaut, Alexis Claude (1713-65)