Legendre, Adrien Marie |
| MATHEMATICIAN (FRANCE) |
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BORN 18 Sep 1752, Paris - DIED 10 Jan 1833, Paris GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Auteuil Cimetière, Rue Claude Lorrain, Auteuil (Division 05) |
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Adrien Legendre studied physics in Paris. He worked as a teacher at a military academy although he didn't beed the money. In 1782 he was elected into the Academy of Sciences. During the French Revolution he lost his fortune and now his teaching work became a necessity. He married Marguerite-Claudine Couhin in 1793. His book "Éléments de Géométrie" was many times reprinted and translated as well. From 1799 to 1812 he worked at the École Militaire. After he refused to vote for a government candidate in 1824 he lost his pension from the École Militaire. After a change of government it was partially restored in 1828. In 1831 he became an officer of the Légion d'Honneur. He died in 1833 and his name is one of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower. He was best known for his Legendre transformation used in classical mechanics. His work on roots of polynomials was improved by Galois and Abel continued his work on elliptic functions. Gauss also did work that followed on his. In 1830 he gave a proof Fermat's last theorem for exponent n = 5 after it was proven partly before by Dirichlet in 1828. Related persons • has a connection with Dirichlet, Peter Gustave Lejeune • corresponded with Germain, Sophie • supported Jacobi, Carl Gustav Jacob |
| Images |
 The grave of Adrien Marie Legendre at the Auteuil Cemetery, Paris. Picture by Androom (04 Nov 2016) |
Sources • Adrien-Marie Legendre - Wikipedia (EN) |
