Augustin-Louis Cauchy

                                                      Augustin-Louis Caushy

Agustin LouisCaushy was one of the greatest mathematicians  during the ninetieth century. In fact, there are sixteen concept and theorems named after him, more than any other mathematicians. His life began in Paris, France on May 22,1857. His father , Louis-Francois, and his mother, Marie   Madeleine Desestre, provided him and his siblings a comfortable life.

Cauchy was exposed to famous scientists as a child. The Cauchy family one had Laplace and Berthollet as neighbors, and his father knew Lagrange. In fact, Lagrange had foreseen Augustin’s scientific greatness when he was a child by warning his father to not show him any mathematical text before he was seventeen years old.

After home schooling, Cauchy entered the Ecole Centrale du Pantheon where he finished his classical studies with distinction. At the age of sixteen, he was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique  in 1805, and two years later , had entered the Ecole des pont et Chaussees. Cauchy then left his institute to become an engineer where he worked outside of Paris.

It was not until 1811 when Legrange had given a problem that he began his mathematical career. Cauchy was to figure out whether the angles of a convex polyhedron are determined by its faces. And according to some, his solutions is considered to be a “classic and beautiful piece of work  and a classic of mathematics” . Over a period of fifteen years , 1815-1830, Cauchy’s name is grew with distinction as he was appointed as the adjoint professor and full professor at  Ecole Polytechnique.

Cauchy married  Aloise de Buire in 1818, she was a close relative of a publisher who was publish most of Cauchy’s work.

After the July revolution of 1830, Cauchy lost most of his positions at the institute  because he refused to take oath of allegiance to the new king, Louis-Philippe, and decided to leave France. It was in 1833.

Cauchy went back to Paris in 1838 when he finished his work with Charles X in Prague, and resumed his involvement with the Academy. At the time, because Cauchy was a mathematician, he was expected from the oath of allegiance. After the establishment of the Second Republic in 1848, Cauchy continued with his writings and publications through the remainder of his life.

Cauchy’s last word to the academy were “I will explain it in the  greater detail in my  next memoire”I can only assume that he was  referring to a new  proof or idea that was not yet thoroughly thought out. Cauchy died eighteen days later at the age of 68. Who knows what mathematical discovery Cauchy took to his grave.