Guillaume de l'Hôpital

Guillaume de l'Hôpital
Born
Guillaume François Antoine de l'Hôpital

(1661-06-07)7 June 1661
Paris, France
Died2 February 1704(1704-02-02) (aged 42)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
Known for
Scientific career
FieldsMathematician
InstitutionsFrench Academy of Sciences
Academic advisorsJohann Bernoulli

Guillaume François Antoine, Marquis de l'Hôpital (French: [ɡijom fʁɑ̃swa ɑ̃twan maʁki lopital]; sometimes spelled L'Hospital; 7 June 1661 – 2 February 1704) was a French mathematician. His name is firmly associated with l'Hôpital's rule for calculating limits involving indeterminate forms 0/0 and ∞/∞. Although the rule did not originate with l'Hôpital, it appeared in print for the first time in his 1696 treatise on the infinitesimal calculus, entitled Analyse des Infiniment Petits pour l'Intelligence des Lignes Courbes. This book was a first systematic exposition of differential calculus. Several editions and translations to other languages were published and it became a model for subsequent treatments of calculus.