Delambre, Jean Baptiste Joseph [key], 1749–1822, French astronomer and mathematician. He was a member of the bureau of longitudes from 1795 and professor at the Collège de France from 1807. With P. F. A. Méchain he measured (1791–99) for the French government an arc of the meridian between Barcelona and Dunkirk. He is noted also for astronomical computations, especially a table of the motions of Uranus, and for discovering four formulas in spherical trigonometry (Delambre's analogies). Delambre is known for his historical works, including Histoire de l'astronomie (6 vol., 1817–27).
See K. Alder, The Measure of All Things (2002).
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