Biography of abraham de moivre contributions
Abraham de Moivre
French mathematician (1667–1754)
Abraham de MoivreFRS (French pronunciation:[abʁaamdəmwavʁ]; 26 May 1667 – 27 November 1754) was a French mathematician known for de Moivre's formula, a formula that links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory.
He moved to England at a young age due to the religious persecution of Huguenots in France which reached a climax in 1685 with the Edict of Fontainebleau. He was a friend of Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley, and James Stirling. Among his fellow Huguenot exiles in England, he was a colleague of the editor and translator Pierre des Maizeaux.
De Moivre wrote a book on probability theory, The Doctrine of Chances, said to have been prized by gamblers. De Moivre first discovered Binet's formula, the closed-form expression for Fibonacci numbers linking the nth power of the golden ratioφ to the nth Fibonacci number. He also was the first to postulate the central limit theorem, a cornerstone of probability theory.
Life
Early years
Abraham de Moivre was born in Vitry-le-François in Champagne on 26 May 1667. His father, Daniel de Moivre, was a surgeon who believed in the value of education. Though Abraham de Moivre's parents were Protestant, he first attended the Christian Brothers' Catholic school in Vitry, which was unusually tolerant given religious tensions in France at the time. When he was eleven, his parents sent him to the Protestant Academy at Sedan, where he spent four years studying Greek under Jacques du Rondel. The Protestant Academy of Sedan had been founded in 1579 at the initiative of Françoise de Bourbon, the widow of Henri-Robert de la Marck.
In 1682 the Protestant Academy at Sedan was suppressed, and de Moivre enrolled to study logic at Saumur for two years. Although mathematics was not part of his course work, de Moivre read several works on mathematics on his own, including 1667-1754 French-English Mathematician Because of problems related to nationality and religion, Abraham de Moivre never had an opportunity to teach mathematics at a university. Nonetheless, he enjoyed fruitful interactions with Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and others and later published texts in which he advanced the understanding of probability theory and other areas of mathematics. Born in Vitry-le-François, France, on May 26, 1667, de Moivre (he apparently adopted the aristocratic "de" after moving to England) was the son of a surgeon. His family belonged to the Huguenot sect, a Protestant group protected since 1598 by the Edict of Nantes, which ensured their limited freedom within the Catholic nation. Thus, de Moivre was educated in both Catholic and Protestant schools before going to Paris, where he studied under the renowned teacher Jacques Ozanam. When de Moivre was in his 20s, however, the Crown revoked the Edict of Nantes, changing the course of his career. After a short imprisonment, he fled to England, where he would spend the remainder of his life. Though his foreign ancestry made it difficult for him to obtain employment through most recognized channels, de Moivre made a good living by providing mathematical advice to gamblers and underwriters, who visited him at Slaughter's Coffee House on Fleet Street in London. Newton's support further ensured a steady stream of tutorial students. In 1695 another influential friend, Edmond Halley (1656-1742), presented a paper by de Moivre before the Royal Society, which accepted him for membership two years later. During the next half-century, de Moivre would have some 15 papers published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. As a mathematician, de Moivre concerned himself with areas ranging from probability theory to calculus. Among his contributions to mathematics was de Moivre's theorem, which helped establish the close connection between the algebra and geom Abraham de Moivre, (a good friend of Issac Newton) was born on May 16th 1667 in Vitry (close to Paris), France and died November 27th 1754 in London, England. Although De Moivre attended college and studied privately, it doesn't appear that he received a degree. He apparently served time in prison for about a year for being protestant. After serving his term and with the expulsion of the Huguenots, he emingrated to England. During his late teens, he worked as a private math tutor. In 1697 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. By 1710 he was appointed to the Commission set up by the Royal Society to review the claims of Newton and Leibniz who eventually discovered calculus. de Moivre was a foreigner which makes it difficult to gain an appointment with the Commission, however, due to his friendship with Newton, he was appointed. De Moivre's main income came from tutoring and it's believe that he lived in poverty for his entire life. Contributions: Source: Wikipedia Abraham de Moivre
Biography
Abraham de Moivre was born in Vitry-le-François, which is about halfway between Paris and Nancy, where his father worked as a surgeon. The family was certainly not well off financially, but a steady income meant that they could not be described as poor. De Moivre's parents were Protestants but he first attended the Catholic school of the Christian Brothers in Vitry which was a tolerant school, particularly so given the religious tensions in France at this time. When he was eleven years old his parents sent him to the Protestant Academy at Sedan where he spent four years studying Greek under Du Rondel.
The Edict of Nantes had guaranteed freedom of worship in France since 1598 but, although it made any extension of Protestant worship in France legally possible, it was much resented by the Roman Catholic clergy and by the local French parliaments. Despite the Edict, the Protestant Academy at Sedan was suppressed in 1682 and de Moivre, forced to move, then studied logic at Saumur until 1684. Although mathematics was not a part of the course that he was studying, de Moivre read mathematics texts in his own time. In particular he read Huygens' treatise on games of chance De ratiociniis in ludo aleaeⓉ. By this time de Moivre's parents had gone to live in Paris so it was natural for him to go there. He continued his studies at the Collège de Harcourt where he took courses in physics and for the first time had formal mathematics training, taking private lessons from Ozanam.
Religious persecution of Protestants became very serious after Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, leading to the expulsion of the Huguenots. At this time de Moivre was imprisoned for his religious beliefs in the priory of St Martin. It is unclear how long he was kept there, since Roman Catholic biographers indicate that soon after this he emigrated to England while his Protestant biographers say that he was imprisoned until 27 April 1688 after which Abraham de Moivre
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Abraham de Moivre