Arbogast

Louis Francois Antoine Arbogast

Born: 4 Oct 1759 in Mutzig, Alsace
Died: 18 April 1803 in Strasbourg, France

Previous (Chronologically) Next     Biographies Index

Previous ( Alphabetically) Next          Welcome page
Arbogast was interested in the history of mathematics and classified Mersenne's papers and collected manuscript copies of memoirs and letters of Fermat, Descartes, Johann Bernoulli, Varignon, de l'Hôpital and others. This is an extremely important collection, part of which is now in Paris and part in Florence.

His contributions to mathematics show him as a philosophical thinker somewhat ahead of his time.

Arbogast introduced discontinuous functions, investigated the limitations of algebraic methods, was careful in his use of infinite series and conceived the calculus as operational symbols.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. M Fréchet, Biographie du Mathematicien alsacien Arbogast, Thales (1937-39), 43-55. 
Previous (Chronologically) Next     Biographies Index

Previous ( Alphabetically) Next          Welcome page

History Topics Index              Famous curves index

Chronologies                           Birthplace Map

Mathematicians of the day  Anniversaries for the year

Search Form   Simple Search Form   Search Suggestions
JOC/EFR February 1996