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Birth
Pierre was in Paris, France to Pierre-Joseph Duhem and Alexandrine Fabre. He would be the eldest of 4 children. -
First Thesis
Presented his thesis in physics for his doctorate. In his thesis, Duhem talks about the potential of thermodynamics in both chemistry and physics. He even defines the criteria of chemical reactions involving free energy. However, this thesis became controversial when he replaced the prior criteria, which was put in place 20 years before by Marcellin Berthelot.
Even though his thesis turned out to be correct, the panel rejected his thesis. -
Published First Thesis
Pierre knew his thesis was correct, so he decided not to listen to what the panel had stated and published the thesis anyway. Publishing the thesis, did not help him form a good bond with Berthelot.
Having a good acquaintance with Berthelot, was actually quite important during that time. Mostly because in 1886, Berthelot became the French Minister of Education. The decision of publishing his thesis, would go on to affect his life forever because Berthelot made him suffer. -
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Taught at Lille
Pierre taught at Lille teaching elasticity, acoustics and hydrodynamics.
Published his lectures in 1891 -
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Wrote Numerous Papers
Pierre studied the work of Gibbs and Helmholtz as well as thermodynamics.
Because of this he wrote several books on these topics through out the following time period. Study of the Thermodynamic Work of J Willard Gibbs - 1887
Commentary of the Principles of Thermodynamics - 1892
Thermodynamics and Chemistry - 1902
Research on Hydrodynamics - 1903-1904
Research on Elasticity - 1906 -
Second Theory was Submitted and Accepted
Pierre submitted his second thesis. However, this thesis focused on a mathematics topic. Thankfully, it was not affected by the issues with his first thesis. His thesis on mathematical work on magnetism was accepted. -
Death
Pierre Duhem passed away in Cabrespine, France while on vacation. The cause of his death is between two causes, Heart Attack and Chest Infection -
Resources
Ariew, Roger. Pierre Duhem. 26 July 2018, plato.stanford.edu/entries/duhem/#LatDev O'Connor , J J, and E F Robertson . “Pierre Duhem - Biography.” Maths History, Mar. 2001, mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Duhem/. -
Resources Part 2
Resources (Photos):
Argia . “Orange Background - Thermodynamics .” Clean PNG, 0AD, www.cleanpng.com/free/first-law-of-thermodynamics.html. “Complete Thermal Radiation System .” PASCO, 2020, www.pasco.com/products/lab-apparatus/thermodynamics. “Pierre Duhem .” Gedanken Zur Geschichte, 10 Sept. 2015, curiousleftist.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/pierre-duhem-on-experiments-and-theory/. -
Pierre Duhem Youtube LInk
