Jean le Rond d'Alembert
French mathematician and philosopher Jean le Rond d'Alembert wrote the influential
Treatise of Dynamics
(1743) and also contributed to
Encyclopédie
of Denis Diderot.
This mechanic, physicist, and music theorist until 1759 also co-edited. His named formula obtains solutions to his wave equation.
Carl Friedrich Gauss caught an error in his proof of the known fundamental theorem of algebra.
He also created his ratio test to see whether a series converges.
His operator, which first arose in his analysis of vibrating strings, plays an important role in modern theoretical physics.
He made great strides in physics and also famously incorrectly argued in
Croix ou Pile
that the probability of a coin landing heads increased for every time that it came up tails. In gambling, people therefore call the strategy of decreasing bet the more one wins and increasing bet the more one loses his system, a type of martingale.
The French explorer Nicolas Baudin during his expedition to New Holland in South Australia named Ile d'Alembert, a small inshore island in southwestern Spencer Gulf. People better know the alternative English name of Lipson island, a conservation park and seabird rookery.
“Every age, and especially our own, stands in need of a Diogenes; but the difficulty is in finding men who have the courage to be one, and men who have the patience to endure one.”
“In effect, what is a courtier? He is a man whom the misfortune of kings and people has placed betwixt the sovereign and truth to conceal it from his eyes.”