Émilie Du Châtelet was born in Paris, France on December 17, 1706. Her name at birth was Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil. She was born into nobility and spent her childhood at a château in Paris. Her cousins described her as “tall, gangly, and awkward”, and her parents feared she would not find a husband since she was not beautiful. To solve this problem, they decided to educate her, hoping that that would help her find a suitable husband. She became beautiful later in her life, but her love and devotion to mathematics had already been solidified. At the age of nineteen, she married a military officer, Marquis Florent-Claude du Chastellet-Lomont. They had three children together, Gabrielle Pauline, born 1726, Louis-Marie-Florent, born 1727, and Victor-Espirit, born 1732, who
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Some of her other accomplishments were that she wrote Institutions de Physique her tutor, Johann Samuel König, in 1740, a physics textbook based on Leibnizian metaphysics, that was initially intended to be for her son. König attempted to take full credit for the book later on. She also published Discours sur le bonheur in 1746, which was an essay on philosophy. Another one of her accomplishments was Voltaire’s publication of Éléments de la philosophie de Newton in 1736, which Voltaire claimed consisted of primarily her work. Along with being an accomplished mathematician and physicist, she was also a linguist, speaking English, Italian, and Latin fluently along with her native French. In 1748, she became pregnant with Jean François de Saint-Lambert, a French poet’s baby at the age of 42. The baby was a girl, named Stanislas-Adélaïde du Châtelet, born September 4, 1749. At the time of the birth, her husband, Voltaire, and the baby’s father were all present. Emilie was expected to recover after the birth, but she died less than a week later, on September 10, 1749. Her daughter also died less than two years
Some of her other accomplishments were that she wrote Institutions de Physique her tutor, Johann Samuel König, in 1740, a physics textbook based on Leibnizian metaphysics, that was initially intended to be for her son. König attempted to take full credit for the book later on. She also published Discours sur le bonheur in 1746, which was an essay on philosophy. Another one of her accomplishments was Voltaire’s publication of Éléments de la philosophie de Newton in 1736, which Voltaire claimed consisted of primarily her work. Along with being an accomplished mathematician and physicist, she was also a linguist, speaking English, Italian, and Latin fluently along with her native French. In 1748, she became pregnant with Jean François de Saint-Lambert, a French poet’s baby at the age of 42. The baby was a girl, named Stanislas-Adélaïde du Châtelet, born September 4, 1749. At the time of the birth, her husband, Voltaire, and the baby’s father were all present. Emilie was expected to recover after the birth, but she died less than a week later, on September 10, 1749. Her daughter also died less than two years