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François Daviet (1734-1799) was a
Little is known about his life. Born in Savoy, he studied in the '' Accademia di Torino'' under the professorship of Lagrange, two years younger than him. In 1759 he was named member of the ''Accademia delle Scienze di Torino''. He was appointed lieutenant in the army of the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
officer and mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
from Savoy in the 18th century.
The family name is sometimes also reported in original sources as Daviet de Foncenex, probably from the original village of the family.
Life and work
Little is known about his life. Born in Savoy, he studied in the '' Accademia di Torino'' under the professorship of Lagrange, two years younger than him. In 1759 he was named member of the ''Accademia delle Scienze di Torino''. He was appointed lieutenant in the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
(the king of Sardinia was the ruler of the Duchy of Savoy) and after some promotions in the army, he was governor of Sassari (1790–91) and of Villefranche-sur-Mer
Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; oc, Vilafranca de Mar ; it, Villafranca Marittima ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region on the French Riviera and is l ...
. In 1792 he participated in the wars against French revolutionary army, and he was judged by treason and imprisoned for one year.
Daviet published in the years 1759-1760 two important papers in the journal of the Academy, ''Miscellanea Taurinensis'': the first one (1759) about imaginary numbers
An imaginary number is a real number multiplied by the imaginary unit , is usually used in engineering contexts where has other meanings (such as electrical current) which is defined by its property . The square of an imaginary number is . Fo ...
is titled ''Mémoire sur les logarithmes des quantités négatives'' and has an extension titled ''Éclaircissements sur les quantités imaginaires''; more important is the second one, titled ''Sur les principes fondamentaux de la méchanique'' (1761). In four sections (law of inertia, composition of forces, equilibrium and law of the lever) he tried to establish the ''a priori'' fundamental laws of mechanics., pages 398-399.
In 1789 he published a paper: ''Récit d'une foudre ascendante éclatée sur la tour du fanal de Villefranche''.
Finally, in 1799, the academy published an ensemble of many of his works, named ''Principes fondamentaux de la méchanique''.
References
Bibliography
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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Daviet De Foncenex, Francois 1734 births 1799 deaths 18th-century French people 18th-century mathematicians