Simon Antoine Jean L'Huilier facts for kids
Simon Antoine Jean L'Huilier (born April 24, 1750, died March 28, 1840) was a Swiss mathematician. He was born and passed away in Geneva. Simon L'Huilier came from a French family called Huguenots. He is famous for his work in advanced math topics like mathematical analysis (which studies how things change) and topology (which looks at the properties of shapes and spaces). He also made Euler's formula work for more kinds of shapes, especially for planar graphs (shapes drawn on a flat surface).
Winning a Big Math Prize
In 1784, Simon L'Huilier won an important math prize from the Berlin Academy of Sciences. The prize was for his ideas about the basic rules of calculus. Calculus is a type of math that helps us understand how things change and move.
He wrote a book about his work in 1787 called Exposition elementaire des principes des calculs superieurs. This book explained his ideas about calculus. Later, a Latin version of the book was also published in 1795.
Even though L'Huilier won the prize, a famous mathematician named Joseph Lagrange was one of the judges. Lagrange had suggested the question for the prize. He thought L'Huilier's work was "the best of a bad lot," meaning he wasn't fully impressed. Lagrange later wrote his own books on the foundations of calculus.
The "lim" Symbol in Math
L'Huilier was the first to use the short form "lim" for "limit." In math, a limit is the value that a function or sequence "approaches" as the input or index approaches some value. This "lim" symbol was later used again in 1821 by Augustin Louis Cauchy in his important math book, Cours d'Analyse. Cauchy then developed his own way of thinking about math using very tiny numbers called infinitesimals.
A Royal Society Member
In May 1791, Simon L'Huilier was chosen to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very respected group for scientists in London, England.
Sometimes, you might see his last name spelled as Lhuilier or Lhuillier.
