Wed.%20Feb.%2015th

1
An 18th Century Woman of Science What She
Did
Judith Zinsser History Department, Miami
University
Abstract A quick survey of the writings in
natural philosophy of Gabrielle Emilie le
Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise Du Chatelet
(1706-49) gives an introduction to the "science"
of the first half of the 18th century and also to
the possibilities for a gifted mathematician who
happened to be a woman. Du Chatelet, usually
known for her fifteen year association with
Voltaire, France's greatest playwright and poet,
studied physics, mathematics, and philosophy and
wrote four works of her own including an essay on
the nature and propagation of fire for the
Academie des sciences, the Institutions de
physique (1740), a response to an attack by the
secretary of the Academie on forces vives, the
translation of Newton's Principia with her own
commentary. In many ways, as her biographer, the
most important question about her, is why has she
been forgotten?

• Wed. Feb. 15th