Augustin-Louis Cauchy

Augustin-Louis Cauchy
Cauchy around 1840. Lithography by Zéphirin Belliard after a painting by Jean Roller.
Born(1789-08-21)21 August 1789
Died23 May 1857(1857-05-23) (aged 67)
NationalityFrench
Alma materÉcole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
Known forCivil engineering
Mathematical analysis
Gradient descent
Implicit function theorem
Intermediate value theorem
Spectral theorem
Limit (mathematics)
See full list
SpouseAloise de Bure
ChildrenMarie Françoise Alicia, Marie Mathilde
AwardsGrand Prize of L'Académie Royale des Sciences
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, physics
InstitutionsÉcole Centrale du Panthéon
École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
École Polytechnique
Doctoral studentsFrancesco Faà di Bruno
Viktor Bunyakovsky

Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy FRS FRSE (UK: /ˈkʃi/ KOH-shee, /ˈkʃi / KOW-shee,[1][2] US: /kˈʃ / koh-SHEE;[2][3] French: [oɡystɛ̃ lwi koʃi]; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus (thereby creating real analysis), pioneered the field complex analysis, and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra. Cauchy also contributed to a number of topics in mathematical physics, notably continuum mechanics.

A profound mathematician, Cauchy had a great influence over his contemporaries and successors;[4] Hans Freudenthal stated:

"More concepts and theorems have been named for Cauchy than for any other mathematician (in elasticity alone there are sixteen concepts and theorems named for Cauchy)."[5]

Cauchy was a prolific worker; he wrote approximately eight hundred research articles and five complete textbooks on a variety of topics in the fields of mathematics and mathematical physics.

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2003). Roach, Peter; Hartman, James; Setter, Jane (eds.). "Cauchy". Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (16th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 59. ISBN 0-521-81693-9.
  2. ^ a b "Cauchy". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  3. ^ "Cauchy". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary – via dictionary.com.
  4. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  5. ^ Freudenthal 2008.