Mathematician:Guillaume de l'Hôpital

Mathematician

French mathematician best known for L'Hôpital's Rule, although this was in fact discovered by Johann Bernoulli.

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 1661 in Paris, France (precise date uncertain)
• Died: 2 Feb 1704 in Paris, France

Theorems

• L'Hôpital's Rule

Results named for Guillaume de l'Hôpital can be found here.

Publications

• 1696: L'Analyse des Infiniment Petits (considered to be the first textbook on calculus)
• 1707: Traité anlytique des sections coniques

Notable Quotes

I have made free use of their [ the Bernoulli brothers ] discoveries, so that I frankly return to them whatever they please to claim as their own.

Also known as

Guillaume de l'Hôpital is the shortened version of his full name and title, which was: Guillaume-François-Antoine Marquis de l'Hôpital, Marquis de Sainte-Mesme, Comte d'Entremont and Seigneur d'Ouques-la-Chaise.

Some sources omit the hyphens: Guillaume François Antoine Marquis de l'Hôpital.

His name is alternatively rendered l'Hospital, which was how he himself rendered it -- however, the French language changed and the silent s was changed to a circumflex.

Whether the surname is prefixed with an uppercase L or not is also variable: l'Hôpital or L'Hôpital.

Sources

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Guillaume de l'Hôpital": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• 1992: George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text {A}.20$: The Bernoulli Brothers
• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): L'Hôpital ( or L'Hospital), Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de (1661-1704)
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): L'Hôpital ( or L'Hospital), Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de (1661-1704)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): l'Hôpital, Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de (1661-1704)
• 2014: Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): l'Hôpital, l'Hôpital's Rule