Jean le Rond d'Alembert

Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert[1] (/ˌdæləmˈbɛər/;[2] French: [ʒɑ̃ batist lə ʁɔ̃

Jean le Rond d'Alembert
dalɑ̃ bɛːʁ]; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician,
mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was co-editor
with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie. D'Alembert's formula for obtaining
solutions to the wave equation is named after him.[3][4][5] The wave equation is
sometimes referred to asd'Alembert's equation.

Contents
Early years
Studies and adult life
Career
Music theories
Personal life
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert,
Death
pastel by Maurice Quentin de La
Legacy Tour
Fictional portrayal
Born Jean-Baptiste le Rond
List of works d'Alembert
See also 16 November 1717
Notes Paris, France
References Died 29 October 1783
External links (aged 65)
Paris, France
Nationality French
Early years
Alma mater University of Paris
Born in Paris, d'Alembert was the natural son of the writer Claudine Guérin de
Known for D'Alembert criterion
Tencin and the chevalier Louis-Camus Destouches, an artillery officer. Destouches
D'Alembert force
was abroad at the time of d'Alembert's birth. Days after birth his mother left him on
D'Alembert's form of
the steps of the Saint-Jean-le-Rond de Paris church. According to custom, he was
the principle of virtual
named after the patron saint of the church. D'Alembert was placed in an orphanage
work
for foundling children, but his father found him and placed him with the wife of a
D'Alembert's formula
[6] She gave him
glazier, Madame Rousseau, with whom he lived for nearly 50 years.
D'Alembert equation
little encouragement. When he told her of some discovery he had made or something
D'Alembert's equation
he had written she generally replied,
D'Alembert operator
D'Alembert's paradox
You will never be anything but a philosopher - and what is that but
D'Alembert's principle
an ass who plagues himself all his life, that he may be talked about
D'Alembert system
after he is dead.[7]
D'Alembert–Euler
condition
Destouches secretly paid for the education of Jean le Rond, but did not want his Tree of Diderot and
paternity officially recognised. d'Alembert
 Cauchy–Riemann
Studies and adult life
equations
D'Alembert first attended a private school. The chevalier Destouches left d'Alembert Fluid mechanics
an annuity of 1200 livres on his death in 1726. Under the influence of the Encyclopédie
Destouches family, at the age of 12 d'Alembert entered the Jansenist Collège des Three-body problem
Quatre-Nations (the institution was also known under the name "Collège Mazarin").
Awards Fellow of the Royal
Here he studied philosophy, law, and the arts, graduating as baccalauréat en arts in
Society
1735.
Follow of the Institut
In his later life, d'Alembert scorned the Cartesian principles he had been taught by de France
the Jansenists: "physical promotion, innate ideas and the vortices". The Jansenists Scientific career
steered d'Alembert toward an ecclesiastical career, attempting to deter him from Fields Mathematics
pursuits such as poetry and mathematics. Theology was, however, "rather Mechanics
unsubstantial fodder" for d'Alembert. He entered law school for two years, and was Physics
nominated avocat in 1738. Philosophy

He was also interested in medicine and mathematics. Jean was first registered under Notable Pierre-Simon Laplace
the name "Daremberg", but later changed it to "d'Alembert". The name "d'Alembert" students
was proposed by Frederick the Great of Prussia for a suspected (but non-existent)
moon of Venus.[8]

Career
In July 1739 he made his first contribution to the field of mathematics, pointing out
the errors he had detected in Analyse démontrée (published 1708 by Charles-René
Reynaud) in a communication addressed to the Académie des Sciences. At the time
L'analyse démontrée was a standard work, which d'Alembert himself had used to
study the foundations of mathematics. D'Alembert was also a Latin scholar of some
note and worked in the latter part of his life on a superb translation of Tacitus, for
which he received wide praise including that ofDenis Diderot.

In 1740, he submitted his second scientific work from the field of fluid mechanics
Mémoire sur la réfraction des corps solides, which was recognised by Clairaut. In
this work d'Alembert theoretically explainedrefraction.

In 1741, after several failed attempts, d'Alembert was elected into the Académie des
Sciences. He was later elected to the Berlin Academy in 1746[9] and a Fellow of the
Royal Society in 1748.[10]

In 1743, he published his most famous work, Traité de dynamique, in which he

developed his own laws of motion.[11]
Nouvelles expériences sur la
résistance des fluides
When the Encyclopédie was organised in the late 1740s, d'Alembert was engaged as
co-editor (for mathematics and science) with Diderot, and served until a series of
crises temporarily interrupted the publication in 1757. He authored over a thousand articles for it, including the famous Preliminary
Discourse. D'Alembert "abandoned the foundation of Materialism"[12] when he "doubted whether there exists outside us anything
corresponding to what we suppose we see."[12] In this way, d'Alembert agreed with the Idealist Berkeley and anticipated the
transcendental idealismof Kant.

In 1752, he wrote about what is now called D'Alembert's paradox: that the drag on a body immersed in an inviscid, incompressible
fluid is zero.
In 1754, d'Alembert was elected a member of the Académie des sciences, of which he became Permanent Secretary on 9 April
1772.[13]

In 1757, an article by d'Alembert in the seventh volume of the Encyclopedia suggested that the Geneva clergymen had moved from
Calvinism to pure Socinianism, basing this on information provided by Voltaire. The Pastors of Geneva were indignant, and
appointed a committee to answer these charges. Under pressure from Jacob Vernes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, d'Alembert
eventually made the excuse that he considered anyone who did not accept the Church of Rome to be a Socinianist, and that was all he
[14]
meant, and he abstained from further work on the encyclopaedia following his response to the critique.

He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1781.[15]

Music theories
D'Alembert's first exposure to music theory was in 1749 when he was called upon to reviewMémoire
a submitted to the Académie by
Jean-Philippe Rameau. This article, written in conjunction with Diderot, would later form the basis of Rameau's 1750 treatise
Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie. D'Alembert wrote a glowing review praising the author's deductive character as an ideal
scientific model. He saw in Rameau's music theories support for his own scientific ideas, a fully systematic method with a strongly
deductive synthetic structure.

Two years later, in 1752, d'Alembert attempted a fully comprehensive survey of Rameau's works in his Eléments de musique
théorique et pratique suivant les principes de M. Rameau.[16] Emphasizing Rameau's main claim that music was a mathematical
science that had a single principle from which could be deduced all the elements and rules of musical practice as well as the explicit
Cartesian methodology employed, d'Alembert helped to popularise the work of the composer and advertise his own theories.[16] He
claims to have "clarified, developed, and simplified" the principles of Rameau, arguing that the single idea of the corps sonore was
not sufficient to derive the entirety of music.[17] D'Alembert instead claimed that three principles would be necessary to generate the
major musical mode, the minor mode, and the identity of octaves. Because he was not a musician, however, d'Alembert misconstrued
the finer points of Rameau's thinking, changing and removing concepts that would not fit neatly into his understanding of music.

Although initially grateful, Rameau eventually turned on d'Alembert while voicing his increasing dissatisfaction with J. J. Rousseau's
Encyclopédie articles on music.[18] This led to a series of bitter exchanges between the men and contributed to the end of d'Alembert
and Rameau's friendship. A long preliminary discourse d'Alembert wrote for the 1762 edition of his Elémens attempted to summarise
the dispute and act as a final rebuttal.

D'Alembert also discussed various aspects of the state of music in his celebrated Discours préliminaire of Diderot's Encyclopédie.
D'Alembert claims that, compared to the other arts, music, "which speaks simultaneously to the imagination and the senses," has not
been able to represent or imitate as much of reality because of the "lack of sufficient inventiveness and resourcefulness of those who
cultivate it."[19] He wanted musical expression to deal with all physical sensations rather than merely the passions alone. D'Alembert
believed that modern (Baroque) music had only achieved perfection in his age, as there existed no classical Greek models to study
and imitate. He claimed that "time destroyed all models which the ancients may have left us in this genre."[20] He praises Rameau as
"that manly, courageous, and fruitful genius" who picked up the slack left byJean-Baptiste Lully in the French musical arts.[21]

Personal life
D'Alembert was a participant in several Parisian salons, particularly those of Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, of the marquise du
Deffand and of Julie de Lespinasse. D'Alembert became infatuated with Mlle de Lespinasse, and eventually took up residence with
her.

Death
He suffered bad health for many years and his death was as the result of a urinary bladder illness. As a known unbeliever,[22][23][24]
D'Alembert was buried in a commonunmarked grave.
Legacy
In France, the fundamental theorem of algebra is known as the d'Alembert/Gauss theorem, as an error in d'Alembert's proof was
caught by Gauss.

He also created his ratio test, a test to see if a series converges.

The D'Alembert operator, which first arose in D'Alembert's analysis of vibrating strings, plays an important role in modern
theoretical physics.

While he made great strides in mathematics and physics, d'Alembert is also famously known for incorrectly arguing in Croix ou Pile
that the probability of a coin landing heads increased for every time that it came up tails. In gambling, the strategy of decreasing one's
bet the more one wins and increasing one's bet the more one loses is therefore called
the D'Alembert system, a type of martingale.

In South Australia, a small inshore island in south-western Spencer Gulf was named Ile d'Alembert by the French explorer, Nicolas
Baudin during his expedition to New Holland. The island is better known by the alternative English name of Lipson Island. The
island is a conservation park and seabird rookery
.

Fictional portrayal
Diderot portrayed d'Alembert in "Le rêve de D'Alembert" ("D'Alembert's Dream"), written after the two men had become estranged.
It depicts d'Alembert ill in bed, conducting a debate on materialist philosophy in his sleep.

D'Alembert's Principle, a novel by Andrew Crumey (1996), takes its title from D'Alembert's principle in physics. Its first part
describes d'Alembert's life and his infatuation withJulie de Lespinasse.

List of works
D'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1743).Traité de dynamique (2nd ed.). Gabay (1990 reprint).
D'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1747a). "Recherches sur la courbe que forme une corde tenduë mise en vibration
(Researches on the curve that a tense cord forms [when] set into vibration)". Histoire de l'académie royale des
sciences et belles lettres de Berlin. 3. pp. 214–219.
D'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1747b). "Suite des recherches sur la courbe que forme une corde tenduë mise en
vibration (Further researches on the curve that a tense cord forms [when] set into vibration)". Histoire de l'académie
royale des sciences et belles lettres de Berlin. 3. pp. 220–249.
D'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1750). "Addition au mémoire sur la courbe que forme une corde tenduë mise en
vibration". Histoire de l'académie royale des sciences et belles lettres de Berlin
. 6. pp. 355–60.
D'Alembert, Jean Le Rond (1995).Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot . Translated by Schwab,
Richard N.; Rex, Walter E. University of Chicago Press.
Mémoire sur le calcul intégral(1739), prima opera pubblicata
Traité de l'équilibre et du mouvement des fluides (1744)
Réflexions sur la cause générale des vents(1746)
Recherches sur les cordes vibrantes(1747)
Recherches sur la précession des equinoxes, et sur la mutation de l'axe de la terre, dans le systême newtonien .A
Paris: Jean Baptiste Coignard. 1749.
Éléments de musique, théorique et pratique. Lyon: Jombert, Charles Antoine ; Bruyset, Jean-Marie (1.). 1759.
Essai d'une nouvelle théorie de la résistance des fluides(1752)
Essai sur les éléments de philosophie(1759)
Éloges lus dans les séances publiques de l'Académie française(1779)
Opuscules mathématiques(8 tomi 1761-1780)
Œuvres complètes, Éditions CNRS, 2002.ISBN 2-271-06013-3
Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers , Flammarion, 1993. ISBN 2-08-070426-
5
Nouvelles expériences sur la résistance des fluides, par mm. D'Alembert ... & l'Abbé Bossut ... A Paris: rue
Dauphine, chez Claude-Antoine Jombert, fils ainé, libraire du Roi pour le Génie & l'Artillerie. 1777.
 Mélanges de littérature, de philosophie et d'histoire
. London: printed for C. Henderson : and sold by .TBecket and P.
A. De Hondt, in the Strand. 1764.

See also
List of liberal theorists
List of things named after Jean d'Alembert

Notes
1. His last name is also written asD'Alembert in English.
2. "Alembert, d'" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/d'alembert). Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
3. D'Alembert 1747a.
4. D'Alembert 1747b.
5. D'Alembert 1750.
6. Hall 1906, p. 5.
7. The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge
, Vol I, London, Charles Knight, 1847, p.417.
8. Ley, Willy. 1952. Article "Moon of Venus" in Galaxy Science Fiction July 1952. MDP Publishing Galaxy Science
Fiction Digital Series, 2016. Retrieved fromGoogle Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=ykikDQAAQBAJ) .
9. Hankins 1990, p. 26.
10. "Library and Archive Catalogue"(http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archi
ve&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27alembert%27%29) . Royal
Society. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
11. D'Alembert 1743.
12. Friedrich Albert Lange, History of Materialism and Critique of its Present Importance
, "Kant and Materialism"
13. [1] (http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=219)Archived (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20120531092038/http://www .academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=21
9) 31 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
14. Smith Richardson 1858, pp. 8–9.
15. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A"(http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf)
(PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
16. Christensen 1989, p. 415.
17. Bernard 1980.
18. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
, 2nd ed., s.v. "Alembert, Jean le Rond d'"
19. D'Alembert 1995, p. 38.
20. D'Alembert 1995, p. 69.
21. D'Alembert 1995, p. 100.
22. Israel 2011, p. 115: "D'Alembert, though privately an atheist and materialist, presented the respectable public face of
'la philosophie' in the French capital while remaining henceforth uninterruptedly aligned witholtaire."
V
23. Force & Popkin 1990, p. 167: "Unlike the French and English deists, and unlike the scientific atheists such as
Diderot, d'Alembert, and d'Holbach, such English scientists as David Hartley and Joseph Priestley presented their
scientific theories as evidence for their scriptural views."
24. Horowitz 1999, pp. 52–53: "In positive theory there was a wide divergence between oltaire's
V panpsychic deism and
Diderot's physiological materialism, or d'Alembert's agnostic positivism and Helvetius' sociological materialism."

References
Bernard, Jonathan W. (1980). "The Principleand the Elements: Rameau's Controversy with D'Alembert".Journal of
Music Theory. 24 (1): 37–62.
Briggs, J. Morton (1970). "Jean le Rond d'Alembert".Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. pp. 110–117.ISBN 0-684-10114-9.
 Christensen, Thomas (1989). "Music Theory as Scientific Propaganda: The Case of D'Alembert's Élémens sic]
[ De
Musique". Journal of the History of Ideas. 50 (3): 409–27.
Crépel, Pierre (2005). "Traité de dynamique". In Grattan-Guinness, I. Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics.
Elsevier. pp. 159–67.

Elsberry, Kristie Beverly (1984).Elémens de musique théorique et pratique suivant les principles de M. Rameau: an
Annotated New Translation and a Comparison to Rameau's Theoretical Writings(PhD Dissertation). Florida State
University.
Force, James E.; Popkin, Richard Henry (1990).Essays on the Context, Nature, and Influence of Isaac Newton's
Theology. Springer. ISBN 9780792305835.
Grimsley, Ronald (1963). Jean d'Alembert. Oxford University Press.
Hall, Evelyn Beatrice (1906).The Friends of Voltaire. Smith, Elder & Co.
Hankins, Thomas L. (1990).Jean d'Alembert: Science and the Enlightenment . New York: Gordon and Breach.
ISBN 978-2-88124-399-8.
Horowitz, Irving Louis (1999).Behemoth: Main Currents in the History and Theory of Political Sociology
. Transaction
Publishers. ISBN 9781412817929.
Israel, Jonathan (2011).Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights 1750–1790. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954820-0.
Smith Richardson, Nathaniel(1858). "Voltaire and Geneva". The Church Review. G.B. Bassett. 10: 1–14.

External links
Works by or about Jean le Rond d'Alembertat Internet Archive
Works by Jean le Rond d'Alembertat LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
D'Alembert's accusation of Euler's plagiarismat Convergence
English translation of part of the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert
An Account of the Destruction of the Jesuits in Franceby Jean Le Rond d' Alembert (1766)
Select Eulogies of the Members of the French Academy , With Notes by Jean Le Rond d' Alembert (1799)
Correspondence with Frederick the Great
Jean D'Alembert – Œuvres complètesGallica-Math
The ARTFL Encyclopédie, a project at the University of Chicago (articles in French, scans of 18th century print
copies provided)
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jean le Rond d'Alembert", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive,
University of St Andrews.
The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative rTanslation Project, product of the Scholarly Publishing
Office of the University of Michigan Library(an effort to translate the Encyclopédie into English)
The Encyclopédie, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Judith Hawley , Caroline Warman and David Wootton (In Our Time,
Oct. 26, 2006)

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