Gabriel Cramer

Gabriel Cramer (July 31, 1704 - January 4, 1752) was a Swiss mathematician, born at Geneva. The work by which he is best known is his treatise on algebraic curves 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 the planets and the motion of their apses (1730), and on Newton's treatment of cubic curves (1746). He was professor at Geneva, and died at Bagnols.

See also: Cramer's rule.

Adapted from A Short Account of the History of Mathematics by W. W. Rouse Ball (4th Edition, 1908).