Étienne Bézout (; 31 March 1730 – 27 September 1783) was a
French mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
who was born in
Nemours,
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the ÃŽle-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, and died in
Avon (near
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...
), France.
Work
In 1758 Bézout was elected an adjoint in mechanics of the
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...
. Besides numerous minor works, he wrote a ''Théorie générale des équations algébriques'', published at
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1779, which in particular contained much new and valuable matter on the
theory of elimination and symmetrical functions of the
roots of an equation: he used
determinant
In mathematics, the determinant is a Scalar (mathematics), scalar-valued function (mathematics), function of the entries of a square matrix. The determinant of a matrix is commonly denoted , , or . Its value characterizes some properties of the ...
s in a paper in the ''Histoire de l'académie royale'', 1764, but did not treat the general theory.
Publications
*
Legacy
After his death, a statue was erected in his birth town, Nemours, to commemorate his achievements.
In 2000, the
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
17285 Bezout was named after him.
See also
*
Little Bézout's theorem
*
Bézout's theorem
*
Bézout's identity
*
Bézout matrix
*
Bézout domain
References
*''The original version of this article was taken from the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
Rouse History of Mathematics
Rouse may refer to:
Places
* Rouse, California, United States, a census-designated place
* Rouse, Wisconsin, United States, an unincorporated community
* Rouses Point, New York, United States, a village
* Rouse Islands, Antarctica
* Cape Rouse, An ...
''
*
External links
*
*
1730 births
1783 deaths
People from Nemours
18th-century French mathematicians
Algebraists
French number theorists
French textbook writers
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Burials in ÃŽle-de-France
{{France-mathematician-stub