Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise Du Chatelet (French pronunciation: [emili dy Satle] ( listen); 17 December 1706  - 10 September 1749) was a French natural philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and author during the early 1730s until her untimely death due to childbirth in 1749. Her most recognized achievement is her translation of and commentary on Isaac Newton's book Principia containing basic laws of physics. The translation, published posthumously in 1759, is still considered the standard French translation today. Her commentary includes a profound contribution to Newtonian mechanics--the postulate of an additional conservation law for total energy, of which kinetic energy of motion is one element.

Du Chatelet's education has been the subject of much speculation, but nothing is known with certainty.  Among their acquaintances was Fontenelle, the perpetual secretary of the French Academie des Sciences. Du Chatelet's father Louis-Nicolas, recognizing her early brilliance, arranged for Fontenelle to visit and talk about astronomy with her when she was 10 years old. Du Chatelet's mother, Gabrielle-Anne de Froulay, was brought up in a convent, at the time the predominant educational institution available to French girls and women. While some sources believe her mother did not approve of her intelligent daughter, or of her husband's encouragement of Emilie's intellectual curiosity, there are also other indications that her mother not only approved of Du Chatelet's early education, but actually encouraged her to vigorously question stated fact.  In either case, such encouragement would have been seen as unusual for parents of their time and status. When she was small, her father arranged training for her in physical activities such as fencing and riding, and as she grew older, he brought tutors to the house for her. As a result, by the age of twelve she was fluent in Latin, Italian, Greek and German; she was later to publish translations into French of Greek and Latin plays and philosophy. She received education in mathematics, literature, and science. Her mother Gabrielle-Anne was horrified at her progress and fought Louis-Nicolas at every step, once attempting to have Emilie sent to a convent.  Du Chatelet's also liked to dance, was a passable performer on the harpsichord, sang opera, and was an amateur actress. As a teenager, short of money for books, she used her mathematical skills to devise highly successful strategies for gambling.

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