André Sainte-Laguë

André Sainte-Laguë ([ ɑ̃ˈdʀe sɛ̃tlaˈɡy ]; born April 20, 1882 in Saint-Martin-Curton ; † January 18, 1950 ) was a French mathematician , pioneer of graph theory and professor of mathematics at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris .

Sainte-Laguë studied at the École normal supérieure (ENS). He was then a teacher in the provinces and in Paris. During the First World War he was wounded three times (he received the Croix de guerre ) and worked from 1917 to 1919 in the ENS laboratory on questions of ballistics and, inspired by it, bird flight. He is possibly the very model for the myth of the scientist who should have shown that bumblebees cannot fly. Sainte-Laguë showed this in a rough calculation assuming flat, smooth wings, but knew himself that his assumptions could not be correct.

After the First World War he was again a high school teacher in Paris and at the same time Maitre de Conferences at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, where he became Professor of Applied Mathematics in 1938 and devoted himself to engineering training. He also organized the mathematics department of the Palais de la Découverte museum .

He was an active union member of the Confédération des travailleurs intellectuels, of which he was president in 1929. During the Second World War he was in the Resistance and was temporarily imprisoned. He received the Resistance Medal and was an officer in the Legion of Honor . He was on the Council (Conseil général) of the Banque de France .

In 1926, before Dénes Kőnig, he wrote the first book on graph theory ( Les réseaux (ou graphes) ). He also authored several popular science books.

A seat allocation procedure is named after him, the Sainte-Laguë procedure , which he published in 1910.

Fonts

Les réseaux (ou graphes). Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1926
Géométrie de situation et jeux. Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1929
Avec des nombres et des lignes. Vuiberg, Paris 1937
You connu à l'inconnu. Gallimard, Paris 1941
Le monde des formes. Fayard, Paris 1948
De l'homme au robot. Fayard, Paris 1953
L'utilisation pratique des mathématiques. Eyrolles, Paris 1949

Web links

André Sainte-Laguë Papers ( English ) In: iisg.nl . Retrieved August 13, 2010.
A majorization comparison of apportionment methods in proportional representation ( English , PDF, 1.2 MB): math.ust.hk . Retrieved August 13, 2010.
Friedrich Pukelsheim: The three mandate allocation methods used in Germany and their namesake ( German ) In: math.uni-augsburg.de . Retrieved August 12, 2020.

Individual evidence

^ It is also given Casteljaloux , Department Lot-et-Garonne.
↑ Quoted in the book of the entomologist Antoine Magnan : Le Vol des Insectes. Hermann, Paris, 1934, with whom Sainte-Lague collaborated on aerodynamics. Wie McMasters - author of The flight of the bumble bee and related myths of entomological engineering. In: American Scientist. Volume 77, 1989, p. 164 - explained here: McMasters on the origin of the myth ( Memento of October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). The myth is also traced back to the circle around Ludwig Prandtl . See Ivars Peterson .

personal data
SURNAME	Sainte-Laguë, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 20, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint-Martin-Curton
DATE OF DEATH	January 18, 1950

[1] It is also given Casteljaloux , Department Lot-et-Garonne.

[2] Quoted in the book of the entomologist Antoine Magnan : Le Vol des Insectes. Hermann, Paris, 1934, with whom Sainte-Lague collaborated on aerodynamics. Wie McMasters - author of The flight of the bumble bee and related myths of entomological engineering. In: American Scientist. Volume 77, 1989, p. 164 - explained here: McMasters on the origin of the myth ( Memento of October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). The myth is also traced back to the circle around Ludwig Prandtl . See Ivars Peterson .