Michel Chasles
Michel Chasles (* November 15, 1793 in Épernon, † December 18, 1880 in Paris) was a French mathematician.
Chasles attended 1812-1814 the École Polytechnique in Paris and lived in Chartres, where he was engaged in mathematical studies. Here he was a professor since 1825, then in 1841 received a professorship of Geodesy and machinery teaching at the École Polytechnique in Paris. At the Academy of Sciences in Paris him a chair of higher geometry was set up in 1846 specifically. In 1839 he became a corresponding and 1851 a full member of the Institute.
Chasles is one of the founders of the so-called modern geometry, the géométrie nouvelle, which tried to solve the most demanding tasks without the aid of geometric algebra.
Much sensation aroused a controversy over manuscripts, which broke out in 1867 Releases Chasles. Chasles claimed to be in possession of letters of Galileo, Pascal and Newton, from which it is apparent that Newton ascribed great discoveries are due to Pascal. Chasles retained the authenticity of these forged by Denis Vrain -Lucas manuscripts, was proven to 1869 as a result of a court case that these were fake. Chasles had become victims of fraudsters, which he even letters from Cleopatra to Caesar bought from, which were written in French.
In his Aperçu Historique (1837 ), in which he mixes historical and geometrical own investigations, he presented et Euclid ( Porism ) as a precursor of projective geometry. The abstruse works of Gérard Desargues he tried to reconstruct. In 1843 he argued in a history of arithmetic, that the decimal system already goes back to Pythagoras (instead of the Indians ).
He is immortalized in particular on the Eiffel Tower, see: The 72 names on the Eiffel Tower.
The asteroid ( 18510 ) Chasles was named after him.