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Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre ( September 19 , 1749 in Amiens – August 19 , 1822 in Paris ) was a French Mathematician and Astronomer . Delambre was born in Amiens , France . After a childhood fever, Delambre suffers from very sensitive eyes and the belief that he will soon go blind. For fear of losing his ability to read, he devours any book available to him and practises his ability to memorise. He thus immerses himself in Greek and Latin literature, acquires the ability to recall verbatum entire pages of books he may have read weeks beforehand, becomes fluent in Italian, English and German and even publishes: "Règles et méthodes faciles pour apprendre la langue anglaise" (Rules and methods to easily learn English). In order to establish a universally accepted foundation for the definition of the Metre (to be defined as 1 / 10,000,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the equator), Delambre in collaboration with Pierre Méchain launched an expedition, lasting from 1792 to 1799 , which measured the length of the Meridian between Dunkerque and Barcelona . This portion of the meridian, which also passes through Paris , was to serve as the basis for the length of the quarter meridian, connecting the North Pole with the Equator . Named director of the Observatoire de Paris and professor at the Collège de France, Delambre is one of the first astronomers to derive astronomical equations from analytical formulas, is the author of Delambre's Analogies and, after the age of 70, also the author of works on the history of Science like "Histoire de l'astronomie". Delambre Crater is named for him on the Moon . EXTERNAL LINKS
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