Jean Baptiste Delambre

Jean Baptiste Delambre was a French mathematician and Astronomer that lived from September of 1749 to August of 1822. Delambre had a childhood illness that left him with very sensitive and changed eyes. Because of his fear of blindness, Delambre began to study as much as he could before he would lose his eyesight. Delambre became fluent in English and German, and memorized extensive works that he could recite. After publishing his first work, Regles et methodes faciles pour apprendre la langue anglaise, Baptiste was elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. After the Academy was commissioned to measure the distance between the North Pole and the equator so that the exact measure of the meter could be established, one of the expedition members to measure the distance quit, so Delambre was put in charge. Delambre also studied astronomy and mathematics in school. Delambre is also famous for calculating his table of Uranus, which helped get him elected into the Academy of the Sciences. He became secretary of Mathematics for the Academy in 1803. His final years were spend researching and studying mathematics and science. He created many works, some astronomical such as his tables of Jupiter. He was also very involved in measurements of the earth, writing works involving latitude and longitude. He spent a lot of work researching the planets and the earth, and gave data and measurements that he calculated that would further research and exploration of our solar system and universe.