1759day.year
Pierre Louis Maupertuis
(1698 - 1759)
French mathematician and philosopher
French mathematician and philosopher
Pierre Louis Maupertuis was an 18th-century French mathematician and philosopher best known for formulating the principle of least action.
Born in 1698 in Saint-Malo, France, Maupertuis excelled in mathematics and natural philosophy.
He solved key problems in the calculus of variations and introduced the principle of least action.
In 1736, he led the Lapland expedition to measure a degree of meridian, confirming Earth's oblate shape.
As president of the Berlin Academy, he corresponded with Euler and Leibniz, advancing Enlightenment science.
His writings bridged mathematics and metaphysics, influencing later developments in physics and philosophy.
Maupertuis died in 1759, leaving a legacy as a pioneer of scientific exploration and thought.
1759
Pierre Louis Maupertuis