Emilie Du Chatelet :: essays research papers fc

Emilie du Chatelet Emilie du Chatelet grew up in a society where there were not many education opportunities for women. She was born in Paris on December 17, 1706 and grew up in a household where marriage was the only way one could improve their place in society. During her early childhood, Emilie began to show such promise in the area of academics that soon she was able to convince her father that she was a genius who needed attention. Provided with good education, she studied and soon mastered Latin, Italian and English. She also studied Tasso, Virgil, Milton and other great scholars of the time. In spite of her talents in the area of languages, her true love was mathematics. Her study in this area was encouraged be a family friend, M. de Mezieres, who recognized her talent. Emilie's work in mathematics was rarely original or as captivating as that of other female mathematicians but it was substantive. At the age of nineteen she married Marquis du Chatelet. During the first two years of their marriage, Emilie gave birth to a boy and a girl, and later at the age of 27 the birth of another son followed. Neither the children or her husband deterred her from fully grasping and indulging in the social life of the court. Some of Emilie's most significant work came from the period she spent with Voltaire, one of the most intriguing and brilliant scholars of this time, at Cirey-sur-Blaise. For the two scholars this was a safe and quiet place distant from the turbulence of Paris and court life. She started studying the works of Leibniz but she then started to analyze the discoveries of Newton. She was extremely success in translating his whole book on the principals of mathematics into French. She also added to this book an "Algebraical Commentary" which very few general readers understood. To realize the significance of her work for future French scholars it is important to understand the social context within which she lived and worked. One of Emilie's most significant tutors was Pierre Louis de Maupertuis, a renown mathematician and astronomer of the time. The struggle for success did not come easy even for Emilie. As a student her curiosity and unrelentedness caused her to place impossible demands on her tutors. Such nature caused her to engage in dispute with her tutor at the time, Samuel Koenig. Their dispute was about the subject of the infinitely small which ended their friendship. In 1740 when Emilie's book Institutions de physique was published, Koenig started a rumor that the work was merely a rehash of his lessons with her.