Emilie Du Chatelet :: essays research papers fc

Emilie du Chatelet     Emilie du Chatelet grew up in a society where there were not manyeducation opportunities for women. She was born in Paris on December 17, 1706and grew up in a household where marriage was the only way one could improvetheir place in society. During her early childhood, Emilie began to show suchpromise in the area of academics that soon she was able to convince her fatherthat she was a genius who needed attention. Provided with good education, shestudied and soon mastered Latin, Italian and English. She alike studied Tasso,Virgil, Milton and other great scholars of the time.     In spite of her talents in the area of languages, her true love wasmathematics. Her study in this area was encouraged be a family friend, M. deMezieres, who recognized her talent. Emilies work in mathematics was rarelyoriginal or as captivating as that of other female mathematicians but it wassubstantive.     At the age of ni neteen she married Marquis du Chatelet. During thefirst two years of their marriage, Emilie gave birth to a boy and a girl, andlater at the age of 27 the birth of another son followed. Neither the childrenor her husband deterred her from fully grasping and indulging in the social lifeof the court.     Some of Emilies most operative work came from the period she spentwith Voltaire, one of the most intriguing and brilliant scholars of this time,at Cirey-sur-Blaise. For the two scholars this was a safe and quiet placedistant from the turmoil of Paris and court life. She started studying theworks of Leibniz but she then started to analyze the discoveries of Newton. Shewas extremely success in translating his whole book on the principals ofmathematics into French. She also added to this book an "AlgebraicalCommentary" which very few general readers understood.     To realize the significance of her work for future French scholars it isimp ortant to understand the social context of use within which she lived and worked.One of Emilies most significant tutors was Pierre Louis de Maupertuis, a renownmathematician and astronomer of the time. The struggle for success did not comeeasy even for Emilie. As a student her curiosity and unrelentedness caused herto place impossible demands on her tutors. Such nature caused her to engage indispute with her tutor at the time, Samuel Koenig. Their dispute was well-nigh thesubject of the infinitely small which ended their friendship.     In 1740 when Emilies book Institutions de physique was published,Koenig started a rumor that the work was merely a rehash of his lessons with her.