World of Mathematics on Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis created the least action principle, which he claimed, among other things, proved the existence of God. Something of a Renaissance man, he also participated in a famous scientific expedition to Lapland to measure the Earth, studied biology, and introduced his homeland to the principles of . A difficult and cantankerous character, Maupertuis was in later years the target of ridicule despite his many scientific accomplishments.
Maupertuis was born in St.-Malo, France on September 28, 1698. His doting mother is said to have spoiled him until he was unable to accept criticism of any sort and unwilling to do anything other than what he wanted. Maupertuis attended local private schools as a boy and at age 16 traveled to Paris for more advanced studies, although he mainly disliked the traditional classical classes he was offered. In 1717 he began studying music, but quickly found that he preferred mathematics instead. By 1723 he had been elected to the illustrious French Academy of Sciences, where he did mathematical and biological research and taught mathematics.
Maupertuis made a trip to London in 1728 that would change his life forever. There he was introduced to the world of Newtonian mechanics, which was a radical change from the Cartesian principles had grown up with. A rapid convert to Newton's views of the universe especially concerning the shape of the Earth and gravity Maupertuis returned to France as the foremost proponent of these revolutionary views. In 1732 he published his first work on Newtonian physics. The paper was so persuasive that by the following year Maupertuis was considered the leading European expert on Newton.
For this reason, Maupertuis was asked in 1736 to lead an expedition to Lapland to test Newton's prediction that the Earth was not perfectly round, as scientists then believed, but rather flattens toward both of the poles. His method was based on measuring the length of a degree along the meridian of longitude, which, if Newton were correct, would reveal that the degree of longitude would be longer in the planet's far northern reaches than near the equator. It was not until a similar expedition to Peru returned to France in 1738 that Newton's hypothesis was proved correct. Germany's Frederick the Great (Frederick II of Prussia) was so impressed with Maupertuis's work that he asked the scientist to join the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, Maupertuis had published his Elements of Geography.
Soon after the War of Austrian Succession began, Maupertuis joined Frederick II in Silesia, but was captured when his headstrong horse bolted with him behind enemy lines. Feared dead, Maupertuis eventually showed up safe in Vienna only to become the butt of jokes for some time a situation that did not agree with his sensitive, quick-tempered nature. Nevertheless, Maupertuis's scientific career continued to prosper, and he was chosen as a member of the Academie Francaise in 1743.
In 1745 Maupertuis published Venus physique, an argument against the period's widely accepted biological theory that all embryos are preformed and that an "essence" from one of the parents could affect the preformed fetus in the other parent. Later that year, he accepted Frederick's invitation to move to Berlin, where he soon married and became president of the Academy of Sciences in 1746.
Also in 1746, Maupertuis published "The Laws of Movement and of Rest," which contained his first discussion of the least action principle. Simply put, the principle states that nature choose the path of least resistance for moving light rays, physical bodies, etc. (Later, mathematician would refine and extend Maupertuis's work in this area, while the principle itself would become a major contribution to quantum physics and the idea of homeostatis in biological terms.) Maupertuis used the least action principle in an effort to prove the objective existence of God and also hoped that it might be a unifying theory for all laws of the universe. He reportedly regarded the least action principle as his own most important work. In 1750, he published An Essay on Cosmology, which contained further discussion of the principle.
As Academy of Sciences president, Maupertuis had a volatile and uneasy tenure, although he attracted many noteworthy scientists to the institution. However, he managed to keep up his work and in 1751 published The System of Nature, one of his most significant works. A study of the occurrence of polydactyly (having too many fingers and toes) in a local family, the work was the first rigorously scientific analysis of transmission of a dominant trait in humans. Based on his findings, Maupertuis proposed a theory of fetal formation and heredity that was far ahead of its time.
In 1752 a longstanding conflict between Maupertuis and the philosopher and writer Voltaire, a former friend, reached a climax when Voltaire published Micromegas, which made fun of the scientist and his work. A sudden laughingstock, Maupertuis suffered a break in health and left Berlin to recuperate in the town of his birth, resigning from the Berlin Academy of Science in 1753. He returned to Berlin in 1754, left again for France in 1756, and finally stopped in Switzerland on his way back to Germany in 1758. There he visited his old friend , and died on July 27, 1759.
This is the complete article, containing 864 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
