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 hotshot 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 unity who needed attention. Provided with good education, shestudied and soon mastered Latin, Italian and English. She also studied Tasso,Virgil, Milton and other great scholars of the time.     In spite of her talents in the area of languages, her on-key love wasmathematics. Her study in this area was encouraged be a family friend, M. deMezieres, who recognized her talent. Emilies hightail it in mathematics was rarelyoriginal or as captivating as that of other female mathematicians but it wassubstantive.     At t he age of nineteen she married Marquis du Chatelet. During thefirst twain 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 indulge in the social lifeof the court.     Some of Emilies most significant 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 turbulence of Paris and court life. She started studying theworks of Leibniz but she then started to analyze the discoveries of Newton. Shewas extremely conquest 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 Frenc h scholars it isimportant to understand the social context 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 skin 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 lock in indispute with her tutor at the time, Samuel Koenig. Their dispute was about thesubject of the infinitely small which ended their friendship.     In 1740 when Emilies book Institutions de physique was published,Koenig started a dish the dirt that the work was merely a rehash of his lessons with her.