WORLD OF SCIENCE
Mathematical Physicist
DR. T. V. PADMA
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Emilie's work won high acclaim in scientific circles.
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Gabrielle-Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil was born in France in 1706. She was clumsy and not good looking. Her father was certain she would not be able to marry well. So he allowed her to have an education. Emilie proved an excellent student. At 15, Emilie had translated books into French, spoke Italian and Latin and played the spinet. A few years later, she did, indeed, marry well., to 33-year-old, Marquis Florent Claude du Chatelet Lomont.
Emilie led an active social life, but continued to study. Marriage provided her with wealth and freedom. Florent Claude was a supportive husband.
Flamboyant
Emilie was a flamboyant character. On being told that only men were admitted into a particular café that was a gathering place for scientists and mathematicians, she dressed as a man, was admitted and admired.
At 26, Emilie met Francois Marie Arouet (the intellectual who named himself Voltaire). Voltaire was 40 at the time. The two of them struck up a volatile but lifelong friendship.
In 1738, Emilie set up a home laboratory to study the nature of fire. She and Voltaire worked together to submit a paper to a competition sponsored by the Academy of Sciences. However, she realised that Voltaire's experiments were on the wrong track, and in addition to helping him, she worked on her own essay, and submitted it. The essay did not win, but it was published, to high acclaim.
In 1740, Emilie started writing a textbook for her son, called Insitutions de Physique (Foundations of Physics). The book was so well received that her former tutor Samuel Koenig declared that he had dictated the book to Emilie. She disputed his claim and proved that she was the author of this work.
At 43, pregnant for the fourth time, Emilie worked hard to complete her translation of Newton's Principia mathematica (Mathematical Principles). She completed it days before her death, and it was published posthumously, in 1759.
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