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Comte de Buffon
Life Timespan of Comte de Buffon -
Buffon is born
Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon was born on the 7th day of September of 1707 in Montbard, France. He was a French naturalist, mathematician, and cosmologist. -
Early College
Buffon attends the Jesuit College of Godrans in Dijon, France at age 10. Then from there, he moves on to the University of Dijon. He had begun to study law but then focused on the fields of science and mathematics. -
Diploma!
Buffon gets a diploma at age 19. And very suprisingly to his family, he abandons law for science. -
Studying
Buffon then goes to Angers, a town in western France.There he goes to study mathematics as well as other topics like medicine and botany. -
Woodology.
In 1733, he was asked to do research on wood for the construction of ships. After that, he got interested in it, since he started to conduct tests to find out the mechanical properties of wood. -
King's Garden
In 1739, he was appointed head of the Jardin du Roi, one of France's scientific institutions. He was suppose to turn it into a major research center and museum. He worked on this since his 'til death. -
L'histoire Naturelle
He is mostly well-known, for his work on natural history especially his book: Natural History. He didnt want to waste time so he paid a servant to wake him up at 5 a.m every day by pouring cold water on his face, but awkwardly, it worked because he published the book in 36 volumes. Because of his grand knowledge, some of his fellow experts disliked him. -
Getting married
Buffon married Françoise de Saint-Belin-Malain in the year of 1752. Buffon was forty-five years old but his wife was only twenty. -
Buffon's needle
In 1777, Buffon conducted an experiment that had to do with probability, it's called Buffon's Needle. He dropped a needle on a piece of paper and the probability of the needle crossing one of the lines is similar to the value of pi. -
Ages of Nature
In 1778, Buffon publishes a book titled Les époques de la nature meaning The Ages of Nature. There he talks about his theory about the origins about the solar system and how it was caused by a comet's collision with the sun. -
Buffon's Death
Buffon died a 16th of April of 1788 in Paris, France. Also, 8 more volumes of Natural History were published.
