Joseph Lagrange Bio

Joseph Lagrange was born in Turin, Italy in 1736 and was very interested in mathematics from a young age. He was inspired by the works of Edmund Halley. Lagrange began teaching himself mathematics at the age of 16 and by the time he was 19, he was made a professor at the Royal Artillery School in Turin. Lagrange sent a solution for deriving the central equation in the calculus of variations to prominent mathematician Leonhard Euler. Everyone in the mathematics and astronomy world were blown away and labeled him one of the greatest mathematicians to be alive at that point. In 1776 Euler recommended that Lagrange succeed him as the director of the Berlin Academy. In Berlin, Lagrange dedicated his time to making himself known in the field of the theory of numbers and algebraic equations. In 1786, Lagrange was invited by many states such as Spain and Naples, but chose Louis XVI's invitation to move to Paris. Louis was a connoisseur of Lagrange's work and gave him many high honors such as being senator and count. Lagrange's time in Paris was dedicated to creating treatises that summarized all of his mathematical ideas and he created one of his most famous works which is the Mecanique Analytique, a book in which the theory of mechanics was reduced to some general formulas which many other equations could be derived. He experienced France during the Reign of Terror and was to be sentenced to death, but since he provided such incredible developments to mathematics for everyone, he was protected by higher political powers. Lagrange died in Paris in 1813. Napoleon honored him with the Grand Croix of the Ordre Impérial de la Réunion 2 days before he died.

He has written numerous papers on astronomy ranging from: the stability of planetary orbits, motion of the nodes of a planet's orbit, attraction of ellipsoids, the potential of a body at any point to is the sum of the mass of every element of the body when divided by its distance from the point, method of interpolation, and a mathematical method of determining the orbit of a comet. Lagrange discovered the Lagrangian Points, which are the five points between 2 orbiting masses which have a net gravitational force of zero at those exact points. These points are one of Lagrange's lasting legacies because it has helped modern astronomers put satellites into space and staying at the same distance between 2 objects without having any issues. Joseph Lagrange is one of the greatest mathematicians in history and his works have lived on throughout the years, helping many fields such as mathematics and astronomy.

Sources:

        "Genesis: Search for Origins | JPL | NASA." Genesis: Search for Origins | JPL | NASA. Ed. Aimee Meyer. NASA, Nov. 2009. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. <http://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/>

         Seikali, Nahla. "Joseph-Louis Lagrange." Joseph-Louis Lagrange. Berkeley, n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2014. <http://math.berkeley.edu/~robin/Lagrange/>.