- Gabriel Cramer
Infobox_Scientist
name = Gabriel Cramer
image_width = 300px
caption = Gabriel Cramer (1704-1752). Portrait by an unknown artist.
birth_date =July 31 ,1704
birth_place =Geneva ,Switzerland
death_date =January 4 ,1752
death_place =Bagnols-sur-Cèze ,France
residence =
nationality =
field =Mathematics andphysics
work_institutions =Académie de Clavin
alma_mater =University of Geneva
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =Cramer's rule Cramer's paradox
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =Gabriel Cramer (
July 31 ,1704 -January 4 ,1752 ) was aSwiss mathematician , born inGeneva . He showed promise inmathematics from an early age. At 18 he received his doctorate and at 20 he was co-chair of mathematics. In 1728 he proposed a solution to theSt. Petersburg Paradox that came very close to the concept of expected utility theory given ten years later byDaniel Bernoulli . He published his best know work in his forties. This was his treatise onalgebraic curve s, "Introduction à l'analyse des lignes courbes algébraique", published in 1750. It contains the earliest demonstration that a curve of the "n"-th degree is determined by:"n(n + 3)"/2 points
on it, in
general position . He edited the works of the two elder Bernoullis; and wrote on the physical cause of the spheroidal shape of theplanet s and the motion of theirapsides (1730), and on Newton's treatment ofcubic curve s (1746). He was professor at Geneva, and died atBagnols-sur-Cèze .He was the son of physician
Jean Cramer andAnne Mallet Cramer .References
*
W. W. Rouse Ball , "A Short Account of the History of Mathematics", (4th Edition, 1908)ee also
*
Cramer's rule
*Cramer's paradox
*Jean-Louis Calandrini External links
*
* [http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath207/kmath207.htm Cramer's Paradox] at MathPages
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