Émilie du Châtelet

(1706-1749)

French mathematician, physicist, and author

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Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet ( 17 December 1706 – 10 September 1749) was a French natural philosopher and mathematician from the early 1730s until her death due to complications during childbirth in 1749. Her most recognized achievement is her translation of and commentary on Isaac Newton's 1687 book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica containing basic laws of physics. The translation, published posthumously in 1756, is still considered the standard French translation. Her commentary includes a contribution to Newtonian mechanics—the postulate of an additional conservation law for total energy, of which kinetic energy of motion is one element. This led to her conceptualization of energy as such, and to derive its quantitative relationships to the mass and velocity of an object.

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Born	Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil 17 December 1706 Paris, France
Died	10 September 1749 (aged 42) Luneville, France
Zodiac	Sagittarius
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