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LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH (1728–1777)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 107 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH (1728–1777) , See also:German physicist, mathematician and astronomer, was See also:born at See also:Mulhausen, See also:Alsace, on the 26th of See also:August 1728. He was the son of a tailor; and the slight elementary instruction he obtained at the See also:free school of his native See also:town was supplemented by his own private See also:reading. He became See also:book-keeper at See also:Montbeliard ironworks, and subsequently (1745) secretary to See also:Professor Iselin, the editor of a newspaper at See also:Basel, who three years later recommended him as private See also:tutor to the See also:family of See also:Count A. von Salis of See also:Coire. Coming thus into virtual See also:possession of a See also:good library, Lambert had See also:peculiar opportunities for improving himself in his See also:literary and scientific studies. In 1759, after completing with his pupils a tour of two years' duration through See also:Gottingen, See also:Utrecht, See also:Paris, See also:Marseilles and See also:Turin, he resigned his tutorship and settled at See also:Augsburg. See also:Munich, See also:Erlangen, Coire and See also:Leipzig became for brief successive intervals his See also:home. In 1764 he removed to See also:Berlin, where he received many favours at the See also:hand of See also:Frederick the See also:Great and was elected a member of the Royal See also:Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and in 1774 edited the Berlin See also:Ephemeris. He died of See also:consumption on the 25th of See also:September 2777. His publications show him to have been a See also:man of See also:original and active mind with a singular facility in applying See also:mathematics to See also:practical questions. His mathematical discoveries were extended and over-shadowed by his contemporaries. His development of the See also:equation x' -+- px = See also:gin an See also:infinite See also:series was extended by Leonhard See also:Euler, and particularly by See also:Joseph See also:Louis See also:Lagrange. In 1761 he proved the irrationality of 7r; a simpler See also:proof was given somewhat later by See also:Legendre.

The introduction of hyperbolic functions into See also:

trigonometry was also due to him. His geometrical discoveries are of great value, his See also:Die freie See also:Perspective (1759–1774) being a See also:work of great merit. See also:Astronomy was also enriched by his investigations, and he was led to several remarkable theorems on conics which See also:bear his name. The most important . are: (1) To See also:express the See also:time of describing an elliptic arc under the Newtonian See also:law of See also:gravitation in terms of the See also:focal distances of the initial and final points, and the length of the chord joining them. (2) A theorem See also:relating to the apparent curvature of the See also:geocentric path of a See also:comet. Lambert's most important work, Pyrometrie (Berlin, 1779), is a systematic See also:treatise on See also:heat, containing the records and full discussion of many of his own experiments. Worthy of See also:special See also:notice also are Photometria (Augsburg, 176o), Insigniores orbitae cometarum proprietates (Augsburg, 1761), and Beitrage zum Gebrauche der Mathematik and deren Anwendung (4 vols., Berlin, 1765–1772). The See also:Memoirs of the Berlin Academy from 1761 to 1784 contain many of his papers, which treat of such subjects as resistance of fluids, See also:magnetism, comets, probabilities, the problem of three bodies, See also:meteorology, &c. In the Acta Helvetica (1752–1760) and in the Nova acta erudita (1763–1769) several of his contributions appear. In See also:Bode's Jahrbuch (1776–178o) he discusses See also:nutation, See also:aberration of See also:light, See also:Saturn's rings and comets; in the Nova acta Helvetica (1787) he has a See also:long See also:paper " Sur le son See also:des See also:corps elastiques," in See also:Bernoulli and Hindenburg's Magazin (1787–1788) he treats of the roots of equation and of parallel lines; and in Hindenburg's Archiv (1798–1799) he writes on See also:optics and perspective. Many of these pieces were published posthumously. Recognized as among the first mathematicians of his See also:day, he was also widely known for the universality and See also:depth of his philological and philosophical knowledge.

The most valuable of his logical and philosophical memoirs were publishedocollectively in 2 vols. (1782). See See also:

Huber's Lambert nach seinem Leben and Wirken; M. See also:Chasles, Geschichte der Geometric; and Baensch, Lamberts Philosophic and See also:seine Stellung zu See also:Kant (1902).

End of Article: LAMBERT, JOHANN HEINRICH (1728–1777)

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