Emilie Du Chatelet

Term Paper Title	Emilie Du Chatelet
# of Words	739
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.96

Emilie du Chatelet

     Emilie du Chatelet grew up in a society where there were not many
education opportunities for women.  She was born in Paris on December 17, 1706
and grew up in a household where marriage was the only way one could improve
their place in society.  During her early childhood, Emilie began to show such
promise in the area of academics that soon she was able to convince her father
that she was a genius who needed attention.  Provided with good education, she
studied 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 true love was
mathematics.  Her study in this area was encouraged be a family friend, M. de
Mezieres, who recognized her talent.  Emilie's work in mathematics was rarely
original or as captivating as that of other female mathematicians but it was
substantive.
     At the age of nineteen she married Marquis du Chatelet.  During the
first two years of their marriage, Emilie gave birth to a boy and a girl, and
later at the age of 27 the birth of another son followed.  Neither the children
or her husband deterred her from fully grasping and indulging in the social life
of the court.
     Some of Emilie's most significant work came from the period she spent
with 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 place
distant from the turbulence of Paris and court life.  She started studying the
works of Leibniz but she then started to analyze the discoveries of Newton. She
was extremely success in translating his whole book on the principals of
mathematics into French.  She also added to this book an "Algebraical
Commentary" which very few general readers understood.
     To realize the significance of her work for future French scholars it is
important to understand the social context within which she lived and worked.
One of Emilie's most significant tutors was Pierre Louis de Maupertuis, a renown
mathematician and astronomer of the time.  The struggle for success did not come
easy even for Emilie.  As a student her curiosity and unrelentedness caused her
to place impossible demands on her tutors.  Such nature caused her to en...

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