Joseph-Louis Lagrange

Joseph-Louis Lagrange was an Italian mathematician and astronomer. He lived from the 25th of January 25, 1736 to the 10th of April, 1813. Born of a French father and Italian mother in Turin, Lagrange lived in poverty for much of his early life due to his father squandering the family wealth on bad investments. He was educated in Turin, and at age 17 he showed his interest in mathematics. In the 1750’s and 60’s, he developed calculus of variations and well as many other problems such as the reason for the moon showing the same face to the Earth at all times. In 1766 he moved to Berlin from Saint Petersburg. There he did his work with full support of the king, who would frequently have him as a guest. While in Berlin, he modified Newtonian mechanics, making them simpler to use. These became known as Lagrangian mechanics. While attempting to solve the three-body-problem, he discovered the Lagrangian points, places where an object will remain in stable orbit between two other objects. By a lucky coincidence, these points were already named after him. Along with the discovery of the L-points, he published several astronomical papers. In 1786, Lagrange accepted an offer from Louis XVI to move to France. He quickly rose through the scientific ranks, and was given housing in the Lourve and was admitted to the French academy of science. Every form of government created by the French revolution, all the way through Napoleon, supported him fully, which surprised him as he was planning to escape during the first part of the uprising.