Charles de Coulomb
Claimed by Alanna Carnevale
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist most well known for the discovery of Coulomb's Law and his work with friction. The SI unit for electric charge known as the coulomb was named after him.
Personal Life
Coulomb was born in Angoulême, France, on June 14, 1736 to Henry Coulomb and Catherine Bajet. Both his parents were rather wealthy, as his father was a lawyer, and his mother came from a well-established family. After being raised in Angoulême, Coulomb and his family moved to Paris where he would enter college.
When Henry Coulomb made poor financial choices, lost all of his money, and moved to Montpellier, Charles de Coulomb had to make the decision of whether to move with him or stay in Paris with his mother. Coulomb decided to live with his father after a disagreement with mother about his future career. In March 1757, he joined the Society of Sciences in Montpellier to whom which he would read many papers on mathematics as well as astronomy. Around February 1760, when Coulomb was entering the École du Génie at Mézières he made many significant friends including Bossut and Borda.
While working in the West Indies, Coulomb suffered from sicknesses that caused him to be in poor health for the rest of his life.