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DEMOIVRE, ABRAHAM (1667-1754)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 5 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DEMOIVRE, See also:ABRAHAM (1667-1754) , See also:English mathematician of See also:French extraction, was See also:born at Vitry, in See also:Champagne, on the 26th of May 1667. He belonged to a French See also:Protestant See also:family, and was compelled to take See also:refuge in See also:England at the revocation of the See also:edict of See also:Nantes, in 1685. Having laid the See also:foundation of his mathematical studies in See also:France, he prosecuted them further in See also:London, where he read public lectures on natural See also:philosophy for his support. The Principia mathematica of See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton, which See also:chance threw in his way, caused him to prosecute his studies with vigour, and he soon became distinguished among first-See also:rate mathematicians. He was among the intimate See also:personal See also:friends of Newton, and his See also:eminence and abilities secured his See also:admission into the Royal Society of London in 1697, and after-wards into the See also:Academies of See also:Berlin and See also:Paris. His merit was so well known and acknowledged by the Royal Society that they judged him a See also:fit See also:person to decide the famous contest between Newton and G. W. See also:Leibnitz (see INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS). The See also:life of Demoivre was quiet and uneventful. His old See also:age was spent in obscure poverty, his friends and associates having nearly all passed away before him. He died at London, on the 27th of See also:November 1754. The 1-hilosophical Transactions contain several of his papers.

He also published some excellent See also:

works, such as Miscellanea analytica de seriebus et quadraturis (1930), in 4to. This contained some elegant and valuable improvements on then existing methods, which have themselves, however, See also:long been superseded. But he has been more generally known by his See also:Doctrine of Chances, or Method of Calculating the Probabilities of Events at See also:Play. This See also:work was first printed in 1618, in 4to, and dedicated to Sir Isaac Newton. It was reprinted in 1738, with See also:great alterations and improvements; and a third edition was afterwards published with additions in 1756. He also published a See also:Treatise on Annuities (1725), which has passed through several revised and corrected See also:editions.. See C. See also:Hutton, Mathematicl and Philosophical See also:Dictionary (1815). For Demoivre's Theorem see See also:TRIGONOMETRY: See also:Analytical.

End of Article: DEMOIVRE, ABRAHAM (1667-1754)

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