All Topics  
Pierre Raymond de Montmort

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Pierre Raymond de Montmort
 
 
  Topics Pierre Raymond de Montmort Topic Home

Pierre Raymond de Montmort, a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
, was born 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 ....
 on 27 October 1678, and died there on 7 October 1719. His name was originally just Pierre Rémond or Raymond. His father pressured him to study law, but he rebelled and travelled to England and Germany, returning to France in 1699 when, upon receiving a large inheritance from his father, he bought an estate and took the name de Montmort.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Pierre Raymond de Montmort'
Start a new discussion about 'Pierre Raymond de Montmort'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Pierre Raymond de Montmort, a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
, was born 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 ....
 on 27 October 1678, and died there on 7 October 1719. His name was originally just Pierre Rémond or Raymond. His father pressured him to study law, but he rebelled and travelled to England and Germany, returning to France in 1699 when, upon receiving a large inheritance from his father, he bought an estate and took the name de Montmort. He was friendly with several other notable mathematicians, and especially Nicholas Bernoulli
Nicolaus I Bernoulli

Nicolaus Bernoulli , was a Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family.In 1704 he graduated at the University of Basel under Jakob Bernoulli and obtained his PhD five years later with a work on probability theory in law....
, who collaborated with him while visiting his estate. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence....
 in 1715, while traveling again to England, and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences
French Academy of Sciences

The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French people Scientific method....
 in 1716.

De Montmort is known for his book on probability
Probability

Probability, or wikt:chance, is a way of expressing knowledge or belief that an Event will occur or has occurred. In mathematics the concept has been given an exact meaning in probability theory, that is used extensively in such areas of study as mathematics, statistics, finance, gambling, science, and philosophy to draw conclusions about t...
 and games of chance, which was also the first to introduce the combinatorial
Combinatorics

Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of Countable set objects. It is related to many other areas of mathematics, such as algebra, probability theory, ergodic theory and geometry, as well as to applied subjects in computer science and statistical physics....
 study of derangement
Derangement

In combinatorics mathematics, a derangement is a permutation in which none of the elements of the set appear in their original positions. That is, it is a bijection f from a Set S into itself with no fixed point : for all x in S, f ≠ x....
s. He is also known for naming Pascal's triangle
Pascal's triangle

In mathematics, Pascal's triangle is a geometric arrangement of the binomial coefficients in a triangle. Pascal's Triangle is named after Blaise Pascal in much of the western world, although other mathematicians studied it centuries before him in History of India, History of Iran, China, and Italy....
 after Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal , was a France mathematician, physicist, and religion philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a civil servant....
, calling it "Table de M. Pascal pour les combinaisons."

Another of de Montmort's interests was the subject of finite differences. He determined in 1713 the sum of n terms of a finite series of the form

where Δ is the forward difference operator
Difference operator

In mathematics, a difference operator maps a function , , to another function, .The forward difference operatoroccurs frequently in the calculus of finite differences, where it plays a role formally similar to that of the derivative, but used in discrete circumstances....
, a theorem which seems to have been independently rediscovered by Goldbach
Christian Goldbach

Christian Goldbach was a Prussian mathematician who also studied law. He is remembered today for Goldbach's conjecture....
 in 1718.

Selected publications


  • de Montmort, P. R. (1708). Essay d'analyse sur les jeux de hazard. Paris: Jacque Quillau. Seconde Edition, Revue & augmentée de plusieurs Lettres. Paris: Jacque Quillau. 1713.


External links