Legendre, Adrien-Marie

Japanese: ルジャンドル（英語表記）Legendre， Adrien-Marie

Born: September 18, 1752, Paris
Died January 9, 1833. French mathematician in Paris. His path to mathematics was opened by Marie, a mathematics teacher at the school named Mazarin, where he studied as a young man. He became an instructor at the Military Academy (1775-80) on the recommendation of J. d'Alembert. He took a neutral stance during the French Revolution, and therefore was unable to become a professor at the École Normale Supérieure (Higher Normal School) or the École Polytechnique, both of which were established by the revolutionary government, nor a member of the committee for measuring the length of the prime meridian. He finally became a professor at the École Normale Supérieure in 1795. As a young man, he studied the gravitational force of ellipsoids, and in his notes (83) he introduced the functions now known as Legendre functions. He also provided the first comprehensive explanation of the least squares method in the history of science in his New Method for Determining the Orbits of Comets (1806). However, his most important mathematical achievements were his Elements of Geometry (1794), in which he organized and simplified Euclid's propositions into an easy-to-read text, as well as his works on elliptic integrals and number theory. He served as a bridge between mathematics up to the 18th century and mathematics from the 19th century onwards.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1752.9.18. パリ
[没]1833.1.9. パリ
フランスの数学者。若いとき学んだマザランという学校の数学教師マリによって数学への道を開かれる。 J.ダランベールの推薦により陸軍士官学校教官となる (1775～80) 。フランス革命には中立的立場を取り，そのため革命政府が創立したエコール・ノルマル・シュペリュール (高等師範学校) やエコール・ポリテクニクの教授にも，子午線の長さを測定する委員会の委員にもなれなかった。 1795年にやっと高等師範学校の教授になる。若い頃回転楕円体の引力について研究し，その覚え書 (83) のなかで，現在ルジャンドルの関数と呼ばれている関数を導入。また『彗星軌道を決定する新方法』 (1806) において，科学史上初めて最小二乗法のまとまった解説をした。しかし，彼の数学上の業績では，ユークリッドの諸命題を整理し単純化し読みやすいテキストに変えた『幾何学原論』 (1794) と楕円積分と整数論の3つが重要であり，彼は 18世紀までの数学と 19世紀以後の数学とのかけ橋の役割を果した。

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