Augustin-Louis Cauchy

Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy FRS FRSE (French: [oɡystɛ̃ lwi koʃi]; 21 August 1789 – 23 May 1857) was a French mathematician reputed as a pioneer of analysis. He was one of the first to state and prove theorems of calculus rigorously, rejecting the heuristic principle of the generality of algebra of earlier authors. He almost singlehandedly founded complex analysis and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra. A profound mathematician, Cauchy had a great influence over his contemporaries and successors. His writings range widely in mathematics and mathematical physics.

"More concepts and theorems have been named for Cauchy than for any other mathematician (in elasticity alone there are sixteen concepts and theorems named for Cauchy)." Cauchy was a prolific writer; he wrote approximately eight hundred research articles and five complete textbooks. He was a devout Roman Catholic, strict Bourbon royalist, and a close associate of the Jesuit order.

Biography

Youth and education

Cauchy (crater)

Cauchy is a small lunar impact crater on the eastern Mare Tranquillitatis. It is circular and symmetric, with a small interior floor at the midpoint of the sloping inner walls. Due to the high albedo of this bowl-shaped formation, it is particularly prominent at full Moon. Just to the northeast of the rim of this crater is the wide rille named Rima Cauchy, a 210-kilometer-long cleft following a line to the northwest.

Southwest of Cauchy is a 120-km fault in the surface named the Rupes Cauchy. This wall parallels the Rima Cauchy to the northwest. South of Rupes Cauchy are two lunar domes designated Omega (ω) Cauchy and Tau (τ) Cauchy. They lie to the south and southwest of Cauchy respectively. Each lunar dome has a tiny craterlet at its crest.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Cauchy.

References

List of minor planets: 16001–17000