Abstract
Following the brutal Reign of Terror, an emergency council was set up in Paris. Its main task was the creation of a new engineering school called the École centrale des Travaux publics, which had the objective to train engineers, both civilian and military.
… the unalterable truth of a well-established fact is in harmony with the character of the mathematical sciences.
—SOPHIE GERMAIN
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Notes
- 1.
Grattan-Guinness (2005).
- 2.
1er nivôse an III (Dimanche, 21 décembre 1794), Ouverture des cours de l’École Centrale des Travaux publics.
- 3.
This building is now residence of the president of the National Assembly. The building located on rue de l’Université faces the Jardin des Tuileries to the east and the Champs-Élysées on the west, in the 7th arrondissement.
- 4.
Grattan-Guinness (2005), p. 233.
- 5.
Fourcy (1828), p. 74.
- 6.
Libri was an Italian mathematician who befriended Germain when he visited Paris in 1825. Libri wrote an obituary note found in Germain’s posthumously published work in philosophy, Germain (1833).
- 7.
Germain (1833), p. 12.
- 8.
Fourcy (1828), p. 395.
- 9.
See L’Ecole Polytechnique par Charles C. Gillispie, at www.sabix.org/.
- 10.
Euler (1794). This is a French translation of Euler’s Algebra book (1770) by Jean Bernoulli III with contributions by Lagrange.
- 11.
Prairial was the ninth month in the sixth year of the French Republican Calendar. It started on May 20 and ended on June 18, 1798. For example, 13 Prairial année VI was equivalent to 1 June 1798.
- 12.
Lagrange (1797a), pp. 93–114.
- 13.
Lagrange (1797b), pp. 115–118.
- 14.
Lagrange (1799a), pp. 232–235.
- 15.
Lagrange (1799b), pp. 270–296.
- 16.
Thermidor is the eleventh month of the French Republican calendar. In this case, 12 Thermidor année VII was 30 of July 1799.
- 17.
Schubring (2005), p. 371.
- 18.
Fraser (1987).
- 19.
Lagrange (1801).
- 20.
Ball (1908), p. 337.
- 21.
Legendre (1786), pp. 7–37.
- 22.
Leibniz coined the term vis viva or “living force.” In Lagrange’s mechanics the live force of the system plays an essential role in dynamics.
- 23.
Lagrange (1804).
- 24.
Séances des écoles normales recueillies par des sténographes et revues par les professeurs, tome I, 1795. pp. 13–14.
- 25.
Ibid. pp. 3, 33.
- 26.
Stupuy (1896), p. 392.
- 27.
In 1796, Laplace published Exposition du système du monde (The System of the World), a popular treatment of his work in celestial mechanics. It includes Laplace’s “nebular hypothesis” to explain the origin of the solar system.
- 28.
Alder (2002).
- 29.
- 30.
Stupuy (1896), p. 2.
- 31.
Bucciarelli and Dworsky (1980).
- 32.
Musielak (2012).
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
A ligne (from the French word “line”) was a measure of length used prior to the definition of the meter. The standardized conversion for a ligne is 2.2558291 mm.
- 35.
Fourcy (1828), p. 75.
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Institut de France. Procès-verbaux. Tome II, p. 621.
- 38.
Bonaparte, Correspondence, 15, no. 12585, dated 15 May 1807.
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Musielak, D. (2020). Lessons from l’École Polytechnique. In: Sophie Germain. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38375-6_2
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