Complex Numbers

Historical Badass

One of the most annoying things about the history of mathematics and science is that women's work in those fields is largely discounted or forgotten.

https://massivesci.com/articles/gabrielle-emilie-du-chatelet-voltaire-newton-phy...

Meet Émilie du Châtelet, the French socialite who helped lay the foundations of modern physics
She improved on Newton's work and outclassed Voltaire

One of the few exceptions is Marie Curie, who of course was also French. I don't think I'd ever heard of Émilie du Châtelet, so I found this article interesting.

Mathematician, physicist, French aristocrat, manager of household, wife, mother, and philosopher, du Châtelet lived her short life to its fullest.

Had she lived just a little later, being a French aristocrat, her life might have been even shorter thanks to La Révolution. So would she.

It is clear, though, that she was interested in many “unfeminine” subjects. Home-educated, she learned multiple languages, including German, Greek, Latin, and Italian...

These days, home-schooling is associated with learning less, not more.

She was dedicated to her studies, and creative in finding resources – she used her mathematical talents to succeed in gambling and used her profits to buy textbooks and lab supplies.

I think I would have liked her.

Her time in Paris also brought her in contact with her most famous lover – the philosopher Voltaire.

Describing Voltaire as a "philosopher" is probably a slight to actual philosophers. "Rabble-rouser" might be more accurate. Oh, I know, Enlightenment values, blah, blah, but the guy seems like he was a bit of a tool, even if he was sometimes right.

When he had to flee Paris for his writing on England, which the French royalty and church took as a threat, he went to du Châtelet’s chateau in Cirey-sur-Blaise. Her husband apparently didn’t mind; Voltaire and du Châtelet were together for the next 15 years, all the while building a library and running scientific experiments.

I'm including this here in case you had any doubt in your mind that this story is about French people.

After the success of her previous publications, du Châtelet found herself looking for a new challenge. She decided to take on Newton’s Principia and its accompanying commentaries.

The article explains that Newton's work was in Latin, and she made it accessible to French readers.

Writing sporadically over four years, du Châtelet added in detailed proofs of ideas Newton mentioned offhand and integrates the latest works of her contemporaries, which built on and supported Newton’s ideas.

Now I'm wondering who might have done that for English readers. As it is, I'm beginning to get some idea of why France was scientifically ahead of England for many years, despite Newton being English.

Yet, it would be ten years after its completion before the public would see her masterpiece. She had finished her writing in a frenzy, working until the wee hours of the morning, while pregnant with her fifth child, by Jean François de Saint-Lambert (she and Voltaire had separated). She was 42 – and at the time, a pregnancy at that age was a death sentence.

At the time, any pregnancy was risky. This is one reason why reliable birth control should be considered one of the greatest inventions of modern times.

And in case the science thing wasn't enough, she was also apparently an early advocate of feminism, as it might have been understood then:

She advocates for women’s education: “This education would render enormous service to the entire human race. Women would be enriched by it and men would find new respect for them. Male–female interaction, which too often polishes manners while weakening and shrinking minds, would then rather serve to expand their knowledge.”

It took a while for that to happen. Equality is a slippery thing, sometimes, and is viewed through the lenses of a period's culture and times -- hence, you have people like Voltaire advocating for the common people while insulting them, or Jefferson writing high-minded polemics about freedom while owning slaves. I'm sure one day our quaint notions of what equality looks like will be scoffed at by future generations (if we have future generations), but hopefully some people will see the incremental progress we've made for what it is.