École normale supérieure, 45 Rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
Charles A. Briot went to Paris in 1838 and entered the École Normale Supérieure. Three years later he completed the course and received his agrégation in mathematics with the highest rank.
In March 1842 Briot received his doctorate of science, having presented his thesis on the movement of a solid body round a fixed point.
École normale supérieure, 45 Rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
Charles A. Briot went to Paris in 1838 and entered the École Normale Supérieure. Three years later he completed the course and received his agrégation in mathematics with the highest rank.
In March 1842 Briot received his doctorate of science, having presented his thesis on the movement of a solid body round a fixed point.
Charles Auguste Albert Briot was a French mathematician, and physicist. He also taught mathematics in Orleans and Lyons, and (after 1855) at the École normale supérieure.
Background
Charles Auguste Albert Briot was born on July 19, 1817, in the town of St. Hippolyte, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, the oldest child of his parents large family. His father, Auguste, was a well-respected citizen of St. Hippolyte, where he was involved in the tanning trade as part of the production and manufacture of leather.
Education
Charles Briot was sent to Paris and in only five years attained a remarkable level of scholarship. When he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1838, he was ranked second. Three years later he completed the course and received his agrégation in mathematics with the highest rank.
In March 1842 Briot received his doctorate of science, having presented his thesis on the movement of a solid body round a fixed point.
Briot devoted himself to teaching, first as a professor at the Orléans Lycée and afterwards at the University of Lyons, where he reencountered his friend Claude Bouquet.
In 1851 Briot moved to Paris, where he taught the course in mathématiques spéciales (preparation for the École Normale Supérieure and the École Polytechnique) at the Lycée Bonaparte and later at the Lycée Saint-Louis, as well as acting as substitute at both the École Polytechnique and the Faculté des Sciences for the courses in mechanical engineering and surveying (1850), calculus (1853), and mechanics and astronomy (1855). From 1864 on, he was a professor at the Sorbonne and at the École Normale Supérieure. In his courses, he particularly stressed the relation between thermodynamics and rational mechanics.
Briot’s studies on heat, light, and electricity were based on the hypothesis of the existence in the ether of imponderable molecules acting upon each other, as well as upon the ponderable molecules of matter. Particularly in his study of the crystalline medium, he linked his findings to Pasteur’s experimental work on the dissymmetry of crystals. These studies, which were conducted from a mathematical point of view, led to the simplification of methods for integral calculus and the advance of the theories of elliptic and Abelian functions.
A large part of Charles Briot’s activity was devoted to the writing of textbooks for students so that he and Bouquet could provide them with a library of basic books on arithmetic, algebra, calculus, geometry, analytical geometry, and mechanics. These books were published in numerous editions and for many years contributed to establishing the level of mathematics teaching in France. Briot also published, with Bouquet, an important work on elliptic functions (1875) and, alone, a treatise on Abelian functions (1879).
Charles Auguste Briot was a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Charles A. Briot was left with a stiff arm after a childhood accident and so he needed to train for an occupation where his disability would not hamper him too badly.
Connections
On October 15, 1842, Charles Auguste Albert Briot married Laure Adrienne Adélaïde Martin in Paris. The couple had six children.