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Pierre Duhem was born in Paris, France.
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Pierre loved learning form a young age. When he was 7 years old his parents had him tutored on grammar, math, Latin, and catechism. When he was just nine years old he wrote a letter about the siege of Chateaundun. This showed that his schooling was paying off as he was able to compose a competent letter. This was out of the ordinary for the time period.
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At The University of Bordeaux, Pierre Duhem taught Theoretical Physics. In addition to Theoretical Physics he was also well known for his work in thermodynamics and hydrodynamics.
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From 1894 to 1985 as a third year student, Pierre presented his thesis for his doctorate. His thesis was on thermodynamic potential titled: Le potentiel thermodynamique et ses applications à la mécanique chimique et à l’étude des phénomènes électriques. His thesis was rejected by the panel for largely political reasons.
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Duhem took a bold stance when he went against the work of Newton and Kelper. In this publication he said that mutual gravity contradicted Kelpers laws of planetary motion. He accused Newton of incorrectly calculating the laws of gravitation.
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Duhem writes a book titled To Save the Phenomena in 1908 that was known as instrumentalism. It details his thoughts that all scientific theories are nothing more than instruments for people to use to get to the correct answer. This book was based on physics and theories from both Plato and Galileo.
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Pierre Duhem died in Cabrespine, France
