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Charles-François-''Maximilien'' Marie de Ficquelmont (1819 − 1891) was a French mathematician, historian of mathematics and military officer, famous for resolving one of the most difficult problem of equational mathematics by inventing the imaginary number i.〔() Théorie des fonctions de variables imaginaires, tomes I à III, Gauthier-Villars, 1874–1876, 3 vol.〕 ==Biography== Count Charles-François-''Maximilien'' Marie de Ficquelmont was born at the Hôtel Lamoignon in Paris on January 1, 1819, the son of a branch of a preeminent family of senior nobility. His father was a high-ranking military officer in Napoleon's Grande Armée, and Ficquelmont was expected to follow in his father's steps as a student at the prestigious ''École Polytechnique''. He graduated from the Polytechnique in 1838 and went on to attend the ''École d'application de l'artillerie et du génie'' in Metz as an officer student in artillery. While an officer in training in Metz, he discovered a key element of solid mechanics as he found out how solid matters are moving. In 1841, he was made a lieutenant-major, but, more attracted by the field of mathematics, he chose to resign from the army and move back to Paris. Close to the positivist movements, Ficquelmont began to spend time with his former professor philosopher Auguste Comte, who soon became his mentor.〔Henri Gouhier, ''La vie d'Auguste Comte'' (1931, rééd. 1997), libr. phil. Vrin, Coll. ''bibl. des textes Phil''〕 In 1844, Ficquelmont introduced him to his sister, countess Clotilde de Vaux. Comte fell passionately in love with her, a feeling that she did not reciprocate,〔André Thérive, ''Clotilde de Vaux ou La déesse morte'', Albin Michel, 1957〕 and the one-sided affair ended when Clotilde suddenly died of tuberculosis a year later. Following Clotilde's death in 1846, Ficquelmont and Comte grow apart while Comte dedicated himself to reorganising his previous philosophical system into a new positivist secular religion inspired by Clotilde's moral values:〔Auguste Comte, ''Système de politique positive'' (1851–1854)〕 the Positivist Church or Religion of Humanity. In 1862, backed by the famous mathematicians Joseph Liouville and General Jean-Victor Poncelet, Ficquelmont was appointed professor of Mechanics. In 1875, he was appointed head of admissions at the École Polytechnique. Besides his academic achievements at the Polytechnique, Ficquelmont developed a new theory of transcendental numbers that led him to resolve one of the most difficult problems of equational mathematics by inventing the imaginary number i.〔'Théorie des fonctions de variables imaginaires'', tomes I à III, Gauthier-Villars, 1874–1876, 3 vol.〕 Ficquelmont also became well known for his work as an historian of mathematics.〔''Histoire des sciences mathématiques et physiques'', tomes I à XII, Gauthier-Villars, 1883–1888, 12 vol〕 Growing old, Ficquelmont entered politics during the Third Republic and became mayor of Châtillon. In 1890, he retired from the Polytechnique and died a year later. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Maximilien Marie de Ficquelmont」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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