Maupertuis

American  

[moh-per-twee] / moʊ pɛrˈtwi /

noun

1. Pierre Louis Moreau de 1698–1759, French mathematician, astronomer, and biologist.

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Maupertuis British  

/ mopɛrtɥi /

noun

1. Pierre Louis Moreau de (pjɛr lwi mɔro də). 1698–1759, French mathematician, who originated the principle of least action (or Maupertuis principle)

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Example Sentences

It had obvious defects: it could not, for example, explain the inheritance of characteristics from the father; in 1752 Maupertuis showed that polydactylism could be inherited in the male as well as the female line.

From Literature

In particular he explained the principle of least action, first advanced by P. L. M. de Maupertuis, and developed by Sir W. R. Hamilton, of quaternion fame.

From Project Gutenberg

Maupertuis's Latin city remained an idle wish.

From Project Gutenberg

As he grew older, however, his social successes ceased, and he began to dream of more lasting distinctions, stimulated by the success of Maupertuis as a mathematician, of Voltaire as a poet, of Montesquieu as a philosopher.

From Project Gutenberg

He offended Frederick, not so much by writing as by publishing his merciless ridicule of Maupertuis, the President of the Berlin Academy of Sciences—an institution suggested by Voltaire, who had indeed recommended Maupertuis as President—in his inimitable Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the Pope, which Macaulay says, even at this time of day, it is not easy for any person who has the least perception of the ridiculous to read without laughing till he cries.

From Project Gutenberg