Jean-Marie Duhamel

Jean-Marie Constant Duhamel (/ˌdjuːəˈmɛl/;^[1] French: [dy.amɛl]; 5 February 1797 – 29 April 1872) was a French mathematician and physicist.

Jean-Marie Constant Duhamel
Born	(1797-02-05)5 February 1797 Saint-Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine, France
Died	29 April 1872(1872-04-29) (aged 75) Paris, France
Known for	Duhamel's formula Duhamel's integral Duhamel's principle Vibroscope
Scientific career
Fields	Mathematics Physics

His studies were affected by the troubles of the Napoleonic era. He went on to form his own school École Sainte-Barbe. Duhamel's principle, a method of obtaining solutions to inhomogeneous linear evolution equations, is named after him. He was primarily a mathematician but did studies on the mathematics of heat, mechanics, and acoustics.^[2] He also did work in calculus using infinitesimals. Duhamel's theorem for infinitesimals says that the sum of a series of infinitesimals is unchanged by replacing the infinitesimal with its principal part.^[3]

In 1853 he published about an early recording device he called a vibroscope. Like other similar devices, the vibroscope was a type of measuring device similar to an oscilloscope, and could not play back the etchings it recorded.^[4]

Honours

• 19617 Duhamel, asteroid named after him

See also

• Duhamel two-point function
• Raabe–Duhamel's test