Antoine Gombaud, ''alias'' Chevalier de Méré, (1607 – 29 December 1684) was a
French writer, born in
Poitou
Poitou ( , , ; ; Poitevin: ''Poetou'') was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers. Both Poitou and Poitiers are named after the Pictones Gallic tribe.
Geography
The main historical cities are Poitiers (historical ...
.
[E. Feuillâtre (Editor), ''Les Épistoliers Du XVIIe Siècle. Avec des Notices biographiques, des Notices littéraires, des Notes explicatives, des Jugements, un Questionnaire sur les Lettres et des Sujets de devoirs''. Librairie Larousse, 1952.] Although he was not a nobleman, he adopted the title ''chevalier'' (knight) for the character in his dialogues who represented his own views (chevalier de Méré because he was educated at Méré). Later his friends began calling him by that name.
[ Aaron Brown, ''The Poker Face of Wall Street,'' John Wiley & Sons, 2006.]
Life
Gombaud was an important
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon
A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
theorist. Like many 17th century liberal thinkers, he distrusted both hereditary power and democracy, a stance at odds with his self-bestowed noble title. He believed that questions are best resolved in open discussions among witty, fashionable, intelligent people.
Gombaud's most famous essays are ''L'honnête homme'' (''The Honest Man'') and ''Discours de la vraie honnêteté'' (''Discourse on True Honesty''),
but he is far better known for his contribution to probability theory. He was an
amateur mathematician who became interested in a problem that dates to medieval times, if not earlier, the
problem of the points. Suppose two players agree to play a certain number of games, say a best-of-seven series, and are interrupted before they can finish. How should the stake be divided among them if, say, one has won three games and the other has won one?
[Tom M. Apostol, ''Calculus, Volume II,'' John Wiley & Sons, 1969.]
In keeping with his Salon methods, Gombaud enlisted the
Mersenne salon to solve it. Two famous mathematicians,
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer.
Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...
and
Pierre de Fermat
Pierre de Fermat (; ; 17 August 1601 – 12 January 1665) was a French mathematician who is given credit for early developments that led to infinitesimal calculus, including his technique of adequality. In particular, he is recognized for his d ...
, took up the challenge. In a series of letters they laid the foundation for the modern theory of probability.
Keith Devlin
Keith James Devlin (born 16 March 1947) is a British mathematician and popular science writer. Since 1987 he has lived in the United States. He has dual British-American citizenship. , ''The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter That Made the World Modern,'' Basic Books, 2008; James Franklin, ''The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, 302-5.
Gombaud claimed that he had discovered probability theory himself, a claim not taken seriously by the mathematicians involved. He also claimed that his probability calculations showed that mathematics was inconsistent, and argued elsewhere that mathematicians were wrong in thinking that lines are infinitely divisible.
[Franklin, ''Science of Conjecture'', 303, 305.]
See also
* ''
Guirlande de Julie''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gombaud, Antoine
French essayists
17th-century French mathematicians
French probability theorists
1607 births
1684 deaths
17th-century French writers
17th-century French male writers
French male essayists