Philippe de La Hire

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For other people named La Hire, see La Hire (disambiguation).
Philippe de La Hire
Philippe de La Hire
Born18 March 1640
Paris
Died21 April 1718 (1718-04-22) (aged 78)
NationalityFrench
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, astronomy, architecture

Philippe de La Hire (or Lahire, La Hyre or Phillipe de La Hire) (18 March 1640 – 21 April 1718)

Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle
he was an "academy unto himself".

He was born in

geometrical perspective[2] and was received as a master painter on 4 August 1670.[1] His paintings have sometimes been confused with those of his son, Jean Nicolas de La Hire, who was a doctor but also a painter.[1]

He also began to study science and showed an aptitude for mathematics. He was taught by the French Jesuit theologian, mathematician, physicist and controversialist

Gottfried Leibniz, René Descartes and Marin Mersenne.[4] He became a member of French Academy of Sciences in 1678, upon the death of Jacques Buot, and subsequently became active as an astronomer, calculating tables of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets and designing contrivances for aiming aerial telescopes.[5] From 1679–1682 he made several observations and measurements of the French coastline,[6] and in 1683 aided in mapping France by extending the Paris meridian to the north.[7] In 1683 La Hire assumed the chair of mathematics at the Collège Royal. From 1687 onwards he taught at the Académie d’architecture
.

La Hire wrote on graphical methods, 1673; on

Manuel Moschopulus on magic squares
, and collected many of the theorems on them which were previously known; this was published in 1705. He also published a set of astronomical tables in 1702. La Hire's work also extended to descriptive zoology, the study of respiration, and physiological optics.

Two of his sons were also notable for their scientific achievements: Gabriel-Philippe de La Hire, (1677–1719), mathematician, and Jean-Nicolas de La Hire [fr] (1685–1727), botanist.

Mons La Hire, a mountain on the Moon, is named for him.

On 19 December 1699, he presented ‘Expériences et observations sur les corps qui frottent l’un contre l’autre’ (Experiments and observations on bodies that slide against each other) at the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris, where he proposed what are now commonly known as Amontons’ laws of friction after Guillaume Amontons.[8]

Selected works

Andromeda and Cassiopeia, detail from Planisphère céleste (1705).

Unless otherwise stated La Hire's works are in French.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "LA HIRE, Philippe de." Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online (subscription required). Oxford University Press, accessed May 29, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Chareix 2008, p. 662.
  3. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0
    . Retrieved August 22, 2012.
  4. ^ "Introduction to Jesuit Geometers by Joseph F. MacDonnell - Chapter 4 Influence on Other Geometers". Archived from the original on 2021-11-30. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
  5. ^ "Méthode pour se servir des grands verres de lunette sans tuyau pendant la nuit". In: Mém. de l'Acad., 1715
  6. ^ "La Hire and the map of France · Philippe de la Hire, the Constant Study · Bibliothèque numérique - Observatoire de Paris".
  7. ^ "La Hire and the Paris meridian · Philippe de la Hire, the Constant Study · Bibliothèque numérique - Observatoire de Paris".
  8. S2CID 238729534
    .

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Philippe de La Hire.

This text incorporates public domain material from the Rouse History of Mathematics

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