Jacques Ozanam (16 June 1640, in
Sainte-Olive,
Ain
Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...
– 3 April 1718, in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
) 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, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
.
Biography
Jacques Ozanam was born in
Sainte-Olive,
Ain
Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...
, France.
In 1670, he published trigonometric and
logarithm
In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 o ...
ic tables more accurate than the existing ones of
Ulacq,
Pitiscus, and
Briggs. An act of kindness in lending money to two strangers brought him to the attention of M. d'Aguesseau, father of the chancellor, and he secured an invitation to settle in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. There he enjoyed prosperity and contentment for many years. He married, had a large family, and derived an ample income from teaching mathematics to private pupils, chiefly foreigners.
His mathematical publications were numerous and well received. ''Récréations'' (published 1694) was later translated into English and is well known today. He was elected a member of the
Académie des Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des 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 research. It was at the ...
in 1701. The death of his wife plunged him into deep sorrow, and the loss of his foreign pupils through the
War of the Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...
reduced him to poverty. He died in Paris on April 3, 1718 (frequently cited as 1717 because of an error in "éloge de Fontenelle").
Ozanam was honoured more abroad than at home. He was devout, charitable, courageous, and of simple faith. As a young man he had overcome a passion for gambling. He was wont to say that it was for the doctors of the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
to dispute, for the pope to decide, and for a mathematician to go to heaven in a perpendicular line.
He also taught
Abraham de Moivre
Abraham de Moivre FRS (; 26 May 166727 November 1754) was a French mathematician known for de Moivre's formula, a formula that links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory.
He moved ...
.
Selected works
* ''Table des sinus, tangentes, et sécantes'' (1670)
* ''Methode générale pour tracer des cadrans'' (1673)
* ''Geometrie pratique'' (1684)
* ''Traité des lignes du premier genre'' (1687)
*
* ''De l'usage du compas'' (1688)
* ''Dictionnaire mathématique'' (1691)
* ''Cours de mathématiques'' (Paris, 1693, 5 vols, tr. into English, London, 1712)
* ''Traité de la fortification'' (Paris, 1694)
* ''Récréations mathématiques et physiques'' (1694, 2 vols, revised by
Montucla in 1778, 4 vols)
* ''Nouvelle Trigonométrie'' (1698)
* ''Méthode facile pour arpenter'' (1699)
* ''Nouveaux Éléments d'Algèbre'' (1702)
* ''La Géographie et Cosmographie'' (1711)
* ''La Perspective'' (1711).
See also
*
VIII. Formulas for Generating Pythagorean Triples
References
*
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1790
Eloge de Ozanam ''Oeuvres de Fontenelle'', Tome 6, p 506, link from
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
.
Sources
Ozanam, Jacques, (1844). Science and Natural Philosophy: Dr. Hutton’s Translation of Montucla’s edition of Ozanam, revised by Edward Riddle, Thomas Tegg, London
Read online- Cornell University
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozanam, Jacques
1640 births
1718 deaths
People from Ain
17th-century French mathematicians
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
18th-century French mathematicians