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

The great Claude-Nicolas Ledoux designed a “Maison des gardes agricoles” in the small town of Maupertuis that looks like a sphere poised on a square lawn.

From New York Times • Dec. 3, 2010

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 "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

For an introduction to the writings of Maupertuis I am indebted to an article by Professor Lovejoy in Popular Sci.

From Evolution in Modern Thought by Weismann, August

Maupertuis, who, together with Voltaire, introduced the new idea of the universe as based on Newton’s discoveries, sought to account for the origin of organic things by the hypothesis of sentient atoms.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 1 "Evangelical Church Conference" to "Fairbairn, Sir William" by Various

In 1736 he accompanied Pierre Louis Maupertuis and Alexis Claude Clairaut in the expedition to Lapland for the measurement of a degree of the meridian.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various