Aditya L-1 has made the words ‘Lagrange points’ popular.

The points are named after the Italy-born French 19th century mathematical genius, Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736 – 1813), whose father wanted him to be a lawyer. Ironically, Lagrange initially found mathematics boring but later, when he was around 16, his interest in the subject was kindled by his reading of a memoir of Halley. He taught himself mathematics and, by the age of 19, he was appointed as a professor in the Royal Artillery School in Turin.

Lagrange is known for his immense contribution to several branches of mathematics, especially variational calculus and celestial mechanics. Through his calculations, he discovered that a tiny mass between two massive bodies will be ‘stable’ (or equally pulled by both bodies) at five points, which became known as Lagrange points. He is also remembered for the creation of Lagrangian mechanics — a reformulation of Newton’s classical mechanics — in which physical systems are described in terms of a single mathematical function called the ‘Lagrangian’. This is still widely used in engineering.

Lagrange was a legend during his days. As a teenager, he solved a mathematical problem that had been vexing mathematicians of the time for over half a century. He wrote his findings to the German mathematician, Euler, who (it is said) withheld his own paper from publication so that the young Italian may get the credit. Later, when Euler left Berlin, Frederick the Great of Prussia wrote to Lagrange inviting him to Berlin, saying, “the greatest king in Europe” wanted to have “the greatest mathematician in Europe” reside in his court. Lagrange was also admired greatly by Louis XVI, the French king who was guillotined during the French revolution, and Napolean.

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