MATHEMATICIAN

Marin Mersenne

1588 - 1648

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Marin Mersenne, OM (also known as Marinus Mersennus or le Père Mersenne; French: [maʁɛ̃ mɛʁsɛn]; 8 September 1588 – 1 September 1648) was a French polymath whose works touched a wide variety of fields. He is perhaps best known today among mathematicians for Mersenne prime numbers, those written in the form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n. He also developed Mersenne's laws, which describe the harmonics of a vibrating string (such as may be found on guitars and pianos), and his seminal work on music theory, Harmonie universelle, for which he is referred to as the "father of acoustics". Mersenne, an ordained Catholic priest, had many contacts in the scientific world and has been called "the center of the world of science and mathematics during the first half of the 1600s" and, because of his ability to make connections between people and ideas, "the post-box of Europe". Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Marin Mersenne is the 61st most popular mathematician (down from 54th in 2019), the 391st most popular biography from France (down from 377th in 2019) and the 14th most popular French Mathematician.

Marin Mersenne is most famous for his work in the field of mathematics. He was a French mathematician who lived from 1588 to 1648. He is most famous for his work on prime numbers.

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Among MATHEMATICIANS

Among mathematicians, Marin Mersenne ranks 61 out of 1,004. Before him are Sophie Germain, Friedrich Bessel, Charles Sanders Peirce, Philolaus, Karl Weierstrass, and Sofia Kovalevskaya. After him are Émilie du Châtelet, Ludolph van Ceulen, Girard Desargues, Nikolai Lobachevsky, Richard Dedekind, and Johann Heinrich Lambert.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1588, Marin Mersenne ranks 2. Before him is Thomas Hobbes. After him are Constance of Austria, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Marina Mniszech, Henri, Prince of Condé, Isaac Beeckman, Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg, Robert Filmer, Pierre Séguier, and Jan Janssonius. Among people deceased in 1648, Marin Mersenne ranks 4. Before him are Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire, Christian IV of Denmark, and Władysław IV Vasa. After him are Tirso de Molina, George I Rákóczi, Joseph Calasanz, Claudia de' Medici, Claude Françoise de Lorraine, Countess Catharina Belgica of Nassau, Qin Liangyu, and Vincent Voiture.

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In France

Among people born in France, Marin Mersenne ranks 391 out of 6,770. Before him are Marie Louise d’Orléans (1662), Dagobert I (611), François Arago (1786), Jean Arp (1886), Marquis de Condorcet (1743), and Ève Curie (1904). After him are Pierre Bonnard (1867), Charles Messier (1730), Jean Buridan (1295), Maurice Leblanc (1864), Jean-Louis Trintignant (1930), and Raymond Kopa (1931).

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Among MATHEMATICIANS In France

Among mathematicians born in France, Marin Mersenne ranks 14. Before him are François Viète (1540), Pope Sylvester II (938), Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789), Urbain Le Verrier (1811), Abraham de Moivre (1667), and Sophie Germain (1776). After him are Émilie du Châtelet (1706), Girard Desargues (1591), Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728), Gaspard Monge (1746), Siméon Denis Poisson (1781), and Guillaume de l'Hôpital (1661).

French born Mathematicians

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