Adrien-Marie Legendre Birthday Highlights
Birth Name
Place Of Birth Paris, France Age 271 years old
Birth Date September 18 1752
Adrien-Marie Legendre Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Mathematician, Scientist Education & Qualifications College Mazarin
Current Partner Marguerite Claudine Couhin
About Adrien Marie Legendre Adrien Marie Legendre was credited as one of the great brains in mathematics to walk the face of the earth.Undeniably, he was one influential person to develop a lot of concepts in mathematics. His contributions were clear, as Legendre polynomials and Legendre transformations were both named in his honor.This distinguished mathematician influenced the works of Norwegian mathematician Niels Abel, whose work on elliptic functions was largely based on Marie Legendre’s work on statistics and number theory. Adrien Marie Legendre came up with the least squares method, which has a wider application in signal processing, linear regression, curve fitting, and also in statistics. After this discovery, he informed his friends and colleagues about it. He published this discovery as an appendix to his book on the paths of comets. As of 2022, his concept of the least squares method is commonly used in mathematics.This brilliant mathematician was credited for his immense contribution to the development of the Legendre transformation. This Legendre transformation concept comes in handy, as it can be used to go from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian formulation of classical mechanics. This Legendre transformation also applies to thermodynamics as one can get the Helmholtz, enthalpy, and also Gibbs energies from the internal energy.The Legendre polynomials were named after Adrien Marie Legendre in honor of his contributions to solutions revolving around the differential equations which always come up in physics and engineering applications, such as electrostatics. His work in polynomials was an inspiration to Galois’s theory. It is impossible to discuss mathematical and scientific breakthroughs without a mention of the input of this renowned mathematician.Childhood And EducationAdrien Marie Legendre was born on September 18, 1752, in the city of Paris, France. While growing up in Paris, he was fortunate to have wealthy parents who made sure he received the best education possible. Marie Legendre studied at College Mazarin in Paris city, France. In 1770, Adrien Marie was done with college and defended his thesis in mathematics and physics.Between 1775 - 1780, Adrien Marie Legendre taught in Ecole Militaire, Paris, France, and subsequently at Ecole Normale from 1795. During this time, Adrien Marie Legendre was associated with Bureau des Longitudes. As Adrien Marie Legendre progressed in his career, he was made an adjoint member by the Academie des Sciences in 1783, and in 1785 he was an associate. Adrien Marie Legendre’s career skyrocketed quickly, and in 1789 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Having achieved this great feat, Adrien Marie Legendre visited William Herschel, who discovered the planet of Uranus.The incident of the French Revolution in 1793 was most devastating for Adrien Marie Legendre as he lost his private fortune to the revolution. Marie Legendre also got married to Marguerite-Claudine Couhin this same year of the French Revolution. Legendre became one of the six members of the reconstituted mathematics section of the Academie des Sciences, Paris, France, which was renamed Institut National des Sciences et des Arts. By the year 1803, the Institut National, Paris, France, was reorganized by Napoleon, and Legendre was moved to the Geometry section.Legendre worked as a mathematics examiner to the graduating artillery students at Ecole Militaire between 1799-1812. Adrien Marie Legendre also served as the permanent mathematics examiner at Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France. He refused to vote for a government candidate at Institut National in 1824. This affected his pension payment being withheld at Ecole Militaire, though it was partially restored in 1828.Family and RelationshipAdrien Marie Legendre married Marguerite-Claudine Couhin in 1793 during the French Revolution.Career And Professional HighlightsBest Known For…There are only a few individuals who have expressed the genius and brilliance as Adrien did. He was an icon and a worthy exemplary figure in the areas of mathematics, physics, and geometry. Adrien’s primary work is ‘Exercices de Calcul Integral’, which he published in three separate volumes. The first volume was in 1811; this was further followed by his second volume in 1817 and the last volume in 1819. Adrien introduced the very basic properties of elliptic functions, gamma function, and beta function.In his second volume, Adrien’s contribution applies to mechanics, such as understanding the rotation of the earth and the attraction of the ellipsoids. In 1830, Adrien proved Fermat’s Last Theorem for exponent n=5. He further reduced elliptic integrals to three standard forms.In addition, Adrien Marie Legendre aided Anglo-French Survey from 1784 - 1790 in the calculation of the actual distance between the Paris Observatory and the Royal Greenwich Observatory through trigonometric tables. Adrien Marie Legendre’s name is one of the 72 distinguished names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Adrien was one of the people named, along with Cassini and Mechain, to help develop the metric system.When it comes to number theory, Adrien is credited for his contribution to the quadratic reciprocity law, which Gauss, another respected mathematician, proved. Adrien was also a pioneer in the distribution of primes. Adrien’s prime number theory which he developed in 1798, took nearly a century of hard work to be proved by Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin in 1896. This French mathematician is known for Legendre transformation, which was named after him.This transformation is primarily used to go from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian formulation of classical and celestial mechanics. Shortly after he presented this research to the French Academy of Science and Art, he was awarded a membership. He was also renowned as the author of ‘Elements de Geometrie’ which he published in 1794. This book was a popular authority for over a century on this very topic.What awards did Adrien Marie Legendre win?It is interesting to know that the year 1782 was remarkable in the life of Adrien Marie Legendre as he was awarded a prize for his treatise on projectiles on resistant media by the Berlin Academy. Adrien Marie Legendre was made an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in 1831. In 1832, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded Adrien a Foreign Honorary Member. Another achievement of Adrien was the fact that the moon crater, Legendre, was named after him. Legendre’s name was also inscribed on the Eiffel Tower to honor him as one of the historic geniuses from Paris, France. Also, most of the books written by this icon are still important today, as the principles are the same.Other Interesting Adrien Marie Legendre Facts And TriviasBefore 2005, a politician’s picture, Louis Legendre, was mistaken to be Adrien Legendre’s actual picture.Adrien Marie Legendre’s mathematical breakthroughs are still very relevant in today’s world.We would love your help! If you have a photo of Adrien Marie Legendre, either of them alone or a selfie that you would be happy to share, please send it to [email protected].If you have knowledge or information that you think would help us improve this article, please contact us.
Adrien-Marie Legendre Birthday Highlights
Birth Name
Place Of Birth Paris, France Age 271 years old
Birth Date September 18 1752
Adrien-Marie Legendre Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Mathematician, Scientist Education & Qualifications College Mazarin
Current Partner Marguerite Claudine Couhin
Adrien Marie Legendre was credited as one of the great brains in mathematics to walk the face of the earth.
Adrien-Marie Legendre Birthday Highlights
Birth Name
Place Of Birth Paris, France Age 271 years old
Birth Date September 18 1752
Adrien-Marie Legendre Birthday Highlights
Birth Name
Place Of Birth Paris, France Age 271 years old
Birth Date September 18 1752
Birth Name
Place Of Birth Paris, France Age 271 years old
Birth Date September 18 1752
Birth Name
Place Of Birth Paris, France Age 271 years old
Birth Date September 18 1752
Adrien-Marie Legendre Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Mathematician, Scientist Education & Qualifications College Mazarin
Current Partner Marguerite Claudine Couhin
Adrien-Marie Legendre Facts
Child Star? no Occupation Mathematician, Scientist Education & Qualifications College Mazarin
Current Partner Marguerite Claudine Couhin
Child Star? no Occupation Mathematician, Scientist Education & Qualifications College Mazarin
Current Partner Marguerite Claudine Couhin
Child Star? no Occupation Mathematician, Scientist Education & Qualifications College Mazarin
Current Partner Marguerite Claudine Couhin
