Nicole-Reine Lepaute

Nicole-Reine Lepaute (Nicole-Reine Étable de la Brière Lepaute; * January 5, 1723 in Paris , † December 6, 1788 ibid) was a French astronomer and mathematician during the Enlightenment . Her husband Jean André Lepaute , whom she married in 1748, was a royal watchmaker. In 1762 Lepaute calculated the exact time of the solar eclipse of 1764. She also correctly predicted the return of Halley's comet in 1759.

Together with Alexis-Claude Clairaut and Jérôme Lalande , she worked on the calculation of the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn on Halley's comet.

In her honor the asteroid (7720) was named Lepaute and the lunar crater Lepaute .

Life

youth

Nicole-Reine Lepaute was born on January 5, 1723 in the Luxembourg palace in Paris as the daughter of Jean Etable, valet in the service of Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans . In her childhood she was respected for her intelligence, interest in books, as well as her social gifts.

Adulthood

In August 1749 she married Jean André Lepaute , a royal watchmaker in the Palace of Luxembourg. He quickly became famous across Europe for his extraordinary work. Since the marriage remained childless, in 1768 she adopted her husband's nephew, Joseph Lepaute Dagelet , who in 1785 became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. She trained him in astronomy and advanced mathematics, so that in 1777 he became a mathematics professor at the French military school. Nicole Lepaute looked after her terminally ill husband in Paris until her death on December 6, 1788.

Career

Nicole Lepaute constructed a clock with an astronomical function together with her spouse. The clock was presented to the French Academy of Sciences in 1753, where it was inspected and approved by Jérôme Lalande .

After she finished the clock with her husband, she worked with him and Lalande on a book called "Traite d'horlogerie (Treatise on Watchmaking), which was published in her husband's name in 1755. Lepaute calculated for this book a table of the number of oscillations for pendulums of different lengths and lengths for any given number of oscillations, ranging from pendulums 1½ inch in length and 18000 oscillations to pendulums 12000km in length.

Halley's Comet

Jérôme Lalande recommended that she, together with the mathematician Alexis Clairault, calculate the predicted return of Halley's comet and calculate the gravitational pull of Jupiter and Saturn from Halley's comet . The team predicted the comet would arrive in mid-April 1759. They were almost correct because the comet arrived on March 13, 1759. Clairaut did not recognize Lepautes share in the joint work, which annoyed Lalande , who considered Lepaute "the most important French astronomer of all time". Jérôme Lalande highlighted her contribution to the scientific work in 1769 in an article in the "Journal des savans".

Mathematical Achievements

In 1761 Lepaute was accepted as an honorary member of the prestigious scientific academy of Béziers and wrote memoirs in the course of its in which she presented calculations about the career of Venus . Lalande worked with Lepaute on the Academy of Sciences' annual guides for astronomers and navigators for fifteen years by developing ephemeris: tables that predict the position of stars on each day of the year. After Lepaute's death, Lalande wrote a brief biography of her contributions to astronomy.

In 1762 Lepaute calculated the exact time of a solar eclipse that occurred on April 1, 1764. She wrote an article in which she displayed the extent of the solar eclipse at 15-minute intervals for all of Europe on a map and predicted the phase of the eclipse and its percentage. This article was published in Connaissance des temps (Knowledge of Time).

She calculated the ephemeris of the sun, moon and planets for the years 1775 to 1784.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Gros M. (2014) Lepaute, Nicole-Reine. In: Hockey T. et al. (eds) Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_841
↑ Dubner, G. (1998). La mujer en la astronomía: pasado y presente. BAAA, 42, 1-2.
↑ 7720 Lepaute (4559 PL) JPL Small-Body Database Browser
^ Nicole-Reine Lepaute in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
^ ^A ^b ^c Ogilvie, Marilyn, and Joy Harvey. The biographical dictionary of women in science: Pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. Routledge, 2003.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Lynn, WT "Madame Lepaute." The Observatory 34 (1911): 87-88.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Connor, Elizabeth. "Mme. LePaute, An Eighteenth Century Computer." Leaflet of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 4 (1944): 314.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Roberts, Meghan K. "Learned and loving: Representing women astronomers in enlightenment france." Journal of Women's History 29, no.1 (2017): 14-37.

personal data
SURNAME	Lepaute, Nicole-Reine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lepaute, Nicole-Reine Étable de la Brière
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 5, 1723
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris
DATE OF DEATH	December 6, 1788
Place of death	Paris

[ref1-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Gros M. (2014) Lepaute, Nicole-Reine. In: Hockey T. et al. (eds) Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_841

[ref2-2] Dubner, G. (1998). La mujer en la astronomía: pasado y presente. BAAA, 42, 1-2.

[ref3-3] 7720 Lepaute (4559 PL) JPL Small-Body Database Browser

[ref4-4] Nicole-Reine Lepaute in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS

[ref5-5] A ^b ^c Ogilvie, Marilyn, and Joy Harvey. The biographical dictionary of women in science: Pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. Routledge, 2003.

[ref6-6] Lynn, WT "Madame Lepaute." The Observatory 34 (1911): 87-88.

[ref7-7] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Connor, Elizabeth. "Mme. LePaute, An Eighteenth Century Computer." Leaflet of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 4 (1944): 314.

[ref8-8] A ^b ^c ^d Roberts, Meghan K. "Learned and loving: Representing women astronomers in enlightenment france." Journal of Women's History 29, no.1 (2017): 14-37.