Jean-Charles de Borda
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Jean-Charles de Borda (May 4, 1733 - February 19, 1799), born in Dax, France to a noble family, was a French mathematician, physicist, political scientist, and sailor. In 1756, Borda wrote Mémoire sur le mouvement des projectiles, a product of his work as a military engineer. For that, he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1764. He is honored by an eponymous crater on the Moon.
Borda was a mariner and a scientist, spending time in the Caribbean testing out advances in chronometers. Between 1777 and 1778, he participated in the American Revolutionary War. In 1781, he was put in charge of several vessels in the French Navy. In 1782, he was captured by the English, and was returned to France shortly after. He returned as an engineer in the French Navy, making improvements to waterwheels and pumps.
In 1770, Borda formulated a ranked preferential voting system that is referred to as the Borda count. As a contemporary of the Marquis de Condorcet, he engaged in many scholarly debates regarding the merits of their respective voting systems (Condorcet advocated the Condorcet method). Nevertheless, the French Academy of Sciences used Borda's method to elect its members for about two decades until it was quashed by Napoleon Bonaparte the year following Borda's death, who insisted that his own method be used. The Borda count is in use today in some academic institutions, competitions and several political jurisdictions. The Borda count has also served as a basis for other methods such as the Quota Borda system and Nanson's method.de:Jean Charles Borda fr:Jean-Charles de Borda it:Jean-Charles de Borda pl:Jean-Charles de Borda