He was born in Paris, the son of Laurent de La Hire, a distinguished artist and Marguerite Coquin.[3] In 1660, he moved to Venice for four years to study painting.[2] Upon his return to Paris, he became a disciple of Girard Desargues from whom he learned geometrical perspective[2] and was received as a master painter on 4 August 1670.[1] His paintings have sometimes been confused with those of his son, Jean Nicolas de La Hire, who was a doctor but also a painter.[1]
La Hire wrote on graphical methods, 1673; on conic sections, 1685; a treatise on epicycloids, 1694; one on roulettes, 1702; and, lastly, another on conchoids, 1708. His works on conic sections and epicycloids were based on the teaching of Desargues, of whom he was the favourite pupil. He also translated the essay of Manuel Moschopulus on magic squares, and collected many of the theorems on them which were previously known; this was published in 1705. He also published a set of astronomical tables in 1702. La Hire's work also extended to descriptive zoology, the study of respiration, and physiological optics.
Mons La Hire, a mountain on the Moon, is named for him.
On 19 December 1699, he presented ‘Expériences et observations sur les corps qui frottent l’un contre l’autre’ (Experiments and observations on bodies that slide against each other) at the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris, where he proposed what are now commonly known as Amontons’ laws of friction after Guillaume Amontons.[8]
Selected works
Andromeda and Cassiopeia, detail from Planisphère céleste (1705).
Unless otherwise stated La Hire's works are in French.
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