Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet was a French natural philosopher and mathematician during the early 1730s until her death in 1749.
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Emilie du Chatelet’s most recognized achievement is her translation of and commentary on Isaac Newton’s 1687 book Principia containing basic laws of physics. The translation, published posthumously in 1756, is still regarded as the standard French translation today.
What was Emilie du Chatelet philosophy?
Emilie du Chatelet’s philosophical magnum opus, Institutions de Physique (Paris, 1740, first edition), or Foundations of Physics, circulated widely, generated heated debates, and was republished and translated into several other languages within two years of its original publication.
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What did Émilie du Châtelet discover?
Emilie du Chatelet participated in the famous vis viva debate, concerning the best way to measure the force of a body and the best means of thinking about conservation principles.
In 1737, Emilie du Châtelet published a paper entitled Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu, based upon her research into the science of fire, where she speculated that there may be colors in other suns that are not found in the spectrum of sunlight on Earth.
Posthumously, Emilie du Chatelet’s ideas were heavily represented in the most famous text of the French Enlightenment, the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert.
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