Maupertuis

Maupertuis, Peter Louis Moreau de (1698-1759), mathematician and astronomer, was born at St. Malo. For some years he was a soldier, but love for mathematics caused his retirement. In 1723 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, in 1728 he visited London and was made F.R.S., and in 1736 he was sent to Lapland tomeasure the meridian in the arctic circle. He spent much time at Berlin, where he married, and died at Basel. He wrote many works on astronomy, The Lams of Motion, The Laws of Rest, and Essay on Cosmology.