Jean le Rond d'Alembert

French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher and music theorist (1717-1783)

Fame72.5
Momentum11.0
Academics rank#110

Source-basedStable

Fame72.5
Momentum11.0
Academics rank#110
Wikipedia10.2K

Lived 1717–1783, aged 66France

France AcademicsAcademic

Wikipedia
90 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1717–1783
Aged 66
Awards
2
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

Co-edited the Encyclopédie with Diderot until 1759 — the sprawling Enlightenment project that tried to catalog all human knowledge. Beyond that editorial feat, he left his name on a wave equation and the formula that solves it.

Biography

About

Jean le Rond d'Alembert was born 16 November 1717 and trained across mathematics, physics, philosophy, and music theory. He joined Denis Diderot to co-edit the Encyclopédie, steering one of the Enlightenment's most ambitious intellectual ventures until he stepped away in 1759. His technical legacy centers on the wave equation that carries his name and the formula he devised to solve it; in France, the fundamental theorem of algebra is also named in his honour. He died 29 October 1783, having threaded the age's twin ambitions: to organize knowledge and to pierce the mathematics beneath the natu…

Gallery