Gabriel Cramer

This article is about a mathematician. For the publisher of the same name, see Cramer brothers.

Gabriel Cramer
Gabriel Cramer (1704-1752). Portrait by Robert Gardelle, year unknown.
Born	31 July 1704 Geneva, Republic of Geneva
Died	4 January 1752 Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France
Nationality	Swiss
Alma mater	University of Geneva
Known for	Cramer's rule Cramer's paradox
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics and physics
Institutions	University of Geneva

Gabriel Cramer (French: [kʁamɛʁ]; 31 July 1704 – 4 January 1752) was a Swiss mathematician, born in Geneva. He was the son of physician Jean Cramer and Anne Mallet Cramer.

Biography

Cramer showed promise in mathematics 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 the St. Petersburg Paradox that came very close to the concept of expected utility theory given ten years later by Daniel Bernoulli.

He published his best-known work in his forties. This was his treatise on algebraic curves (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 the planets and the motion of their apsides (1730), and on Newton's treatment of cubic curves (1746). He died at Bagnols-sur-Cèze while traveling in southern France to restore his health.

He did extensive travel throughout Europe in the late 1730s, which greatly influenced his works in mathematics.

Selected works

• Quelle est la cause de la figure elliptique des planètes et de la mobilité de leur aphélies?, Geneva, 1730
• Introduction à l'analyse des lignes courbes algébriques at Google Books. Geneva: Frères Cramer & Cl. Philibert, 1750

See also

• Cramer's rule
• Cramer's paradox
• Devil's curve
• Jean-Louis Calandrini

References

• "Gabriel Cramer", in Rousseau et les savants genevois, p. 29 Template:Fr-icon
• W. W. Rouse Ball, A Short Account of the History of Mathematics, (4th Edition, 1908)
• Isaac Benguigui, Gabriel Cramer : illustre mathématicien, 1704–1752, Genève, Cramer & Cie, 1998 Template:Fr-icon
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Gabriel Cramer", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews

• Template:De icon Johann Christoph Strodtmann, « Geschichte des Herrn Gabriel Cramer », in Das neue gelehrte Europa […], 4th part, Meissner, 1754 Also digitized by e-rara.ch

External links

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Gabriel Cramer", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews