Jean-Baptiste Delambre

paragraph Jean-Baptiste Delambre (1749–1822), a French mathematician, astronomer and historian of science, was born in Amiens. His astronomical work included studies of Uranus and Jupiter's first known satellites. He is best known for directing, with the astronomer Pierre Méchain and the support of the mathematicians Monge and Legendre, the project to measure the meridian arc between Dunkirk and Barcelona, undertaken at the request of the Constituent Assembly in 1791. The aim of this large-scale geodetic operation was to provide a physical and universal basis for the definition of the metre, the fundamental unit of the metric system. Measurements were carried out from 1792 to 1799 under often difficult conditions, as the Revolution and its aftermath made travel hazardous across much of the country. Appointed professor of astronomy at the Collège de France in 1807, Delambre devoted the final years of his life to a vast undertaking in the history of science, notably a multi-volume Histoire de l'astronomie covering Antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times. 2edeab97-7e41-4d84-bcf9-37aa37180594

Jean-Baptiste Delambre

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See also

Jean-Baptiste Delambre

Joseph Jérôme Lalande

Jean-Charles de Borda

Adolphe Desboves

Paris meridian

Pierre Méchain