Abraham de Moivre

Abraham de Moivre (born May 26, 1667, Vitry, Fr.—died Nov. 27, 1754, London) was a French mathematician who was a pioneer in the development of analytic trigonometry and in the theory of probability. A French Huguenot, de Moivre was jailed as a Protestant upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. When he was released shortly thereafter, he fled to England. In London he became a close friend of Sir Isaac Newton and...