Charles Dupin

Pierre Charles François Dupin ( born October 6, 1784 in Varzy; † January 18, 1873 in Paris) was a French mathematician, engineer and politician.

Dupin was the son of a lawyer and grew up in the Nivernais. He studied with Gaspard Monge at the École polytechnique and was then as a marine engineer on sea voyages and later in Antwerp, Genoa, Toulouse ( where he 1813, the Marine Museum founded ) and 1807 to 1810 on Corfu, where he reorganized the naval arsenal and harbor. From 1819 to 1854 he was professor of mathematics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris, where he also held a very popular public lectures, for example, on the applications of geometry in industry. In 1828 he was elected as a deputy for the department of Tarn into parliament. In 1834 he was Navy Minister and was in 1852 in the French Senate. He struggled as a politician to building schools, banks, industry (in particular the spread of steam power ) of roads and canals.

While still a student he discovered named after him Dupinschen Zykliden. He led the Dupin indicatrix in the differential geometry of surfaces and asymptotic lines on surfaces ( Developpments de la geometry 1813).

In 1813 he was elected to the Institut de France ( the Napoleonic replacement for the French Academy ) and in 1818 the French Academy of Sciences. In 1838 he received the peer - dignity.

In 1826 he published a map of the distribution of illiteracy in France. Each district is represented depending on the frequency of various shades. This was the first choropleth map.

His brother was the famous lawyer André Dupin.