Louis-Bertrand Castel

Louis -Bertrand Castel ( * November 15, 1688 in Montpellier, † January 11, 1757 in Paris) was a French Jesuit and mathematician.

Life

Castel was born the son of a doctor in Montpellier. He attended the Jesuit school in Toulouse, joined the Order in 1703 and completed a study of ancient languages ​​, mathematics and philosophy. First, he taught at the colleges of the Jesuits in Toulouse, Clermont Aubenas, Pamiers and Cahors. His desire to go as a missionary to China, was refused, instead Father Tournemine 1720 he was appointed as a teacher at the prestigious Collège Louis -le- Grand in Paris. From 1720 to 1745 he was one of the editors of the Journal de Trévoux, the scientific organ of the Jesuits. After he had published several treatises on mathematics and physics, which made ​​him known in the learned circles of Europe, he was inducted in 1730 into the Royal Society in London, in 1746, the Académie de Bordeaux, and 1748 in the Académie de Rouen and the Société royale in Lyon.

He was Cartesians and in his time the most prominent opponents of the Newtonian system. The laws of nature were rationally derived for him Newton's insistence on the observation he wrote an atheistic materialism.

He was known primarily for his color theory and the theory developed in 1725 by him eyes piano or piano colors, the coupled optical and acoustic effects. Each note in the chromatic scale, he ordered a color to:

Only towards the end of his life, corresponding instruments were built. Diderot, the Castel estimated Lettre sur les reports in its sourds et muets ( Letter on the Deaf and Dumb, 1751 ) with the presentation of such an instrument.

Writings

• Traité de physique sur la pesanteur universal des corps. 1724.
• Mathématique universal. 1728.
• L' Optique des couleurs. In 1740.