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Jean-Robert Argand
 
 
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Jean-Robert Argand (July 18, 1768 - August 13, 1822) was a non-professional mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
. In 1806, while managing a bookstore in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, he published the idea of geometrical interpretation of complex number
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
s known as the Argand diagram
Complex plane

In mathematics, the complex plane is a geometric representation of the complex numbersestablished by the real axis and the orthogonal imaginary axis....
.

Life
Jean-Robert Argand was born in Geneva
Geneva

Geneva is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie . Situated where the Rh?ne River exits Lake Geneva , it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 to Jacques Argand, his father, and Eve Carnac, his mother. His background and education are mostly unknown. Since his knowledge of mathematics was self-taught and he did not belong to any mathematical organizations, he likely pursued mathematics as a hobby rather than a profession.

Argand moved to Paris in 1806 with his family and, when managing a bookshop there, privately published his Essai sur une manière de représenter les quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques (Essay on a method of representing imaginary quantities
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
).






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Encyclopedia


Jean-Robert Argand (July 18, 1768 - August 13, 1822) was a non-professional mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
. In 1806, while managing a bookstore in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
, he published the idea of geometrical interpretation of complex number
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
s known as the Argand diagram
Complex plane

In mathematics, the complex plane is a geometric representation of the complex numbersestablished by the real axis and the orthogonal imaginary axis....
.

Life


Jean-Robert Argand was born in Geneva
Geneva

Geneva is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie . Situated where the Rh?ne River exits Lake Geneva , it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 to Jacques Argand, his father, and Eve Carnac, his mother. His background and education are mostly unknown. Since his knowledge of mathematics was self-taught and he did not belong to any mathematical organizations, he likely pursued mathematics as a hobby rather than a profession.

Argand moved to Paris in 1806 with his family and, when managing a bookshop there, privately published his Essai sur une manière de représenter les quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques (Essay on a method of representing imaginary quantities
Complex number

In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
). In 1813, it was republished in the French journal Annales de Mathématiques.

The Essay discussed a method of graphing complex numbers via analytical geometry. The topic of complex numbers was also being studied by other mathematicians, notably Carl Friedrich Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauss

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. was a Germans mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, mathematical analysis, Differential geometry and topology, geodesy, electrostatics, astronomy and optics....
 and Caspar Wessel
Caspar Wessel

Caspar Wessel was a Denmark-Norway mathematician.Wessel was born in Jonsrud, Vestby, Akershus, Norway. In 1763, having completed secondary school, he went to Denmark for further studies ....
. Wessel's 1799 paper on a similar graphing technique did not attract attention.

Jean-Robert Argand died of an unknown cause on August 13, 1822 in Paris.

See also


  • Caspar Wessel
    Caspar Wessel

    Caspar Wessel was a Denmark-Norway mathematician.Wessel was born in Jonsrud, Vestby, Akershus, Norway. In 1763, having completed secondary school, he went to Denmark for further studies ....
  • i
    Imaginary unit

    In mathematics, physics, and engineering, the imaginary unit is denoted by  or the Latin   or the Greek iota . It allows the real number system, to be extended to the complex number system,   Its precise definition is dependent upon the particular method of extension....
    , the imaginary square root of -1
    -1 (number)

    In mathematics, −1 is the additive inverse of 1 , that is, the number that when addition to 1 gives 0. It is the negative and non-negative numbers integer greater than negative two and less than 0 ....
  • Complex number
    Complex number

    In mathematics, the complex numbers are an extension of the real numbers obtained by adjoining an imaginary unit, denoted i, which satisfies:...
  • Complex plane
    Complex plane

    In mathematics, the complex plane is a geometric representation of the complex numbersestablished by the real axis and the orthogonal imaginary axis....
     (also known as Argand plane)


External links

  • Robert Argand, Essai sur une manière de représenter des quantités imaginaires dans les constructions géométriques, 2e édition , Gauthier Villars, Paris (1874)


Further reading