Jan Śniadecki was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

, philosopher and astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

 at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Life

Born in Żnin

Żnin

Żnin is a small town in Poland with a population of 14,558 . It is in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the capital of Żnin County. The town is situated in the historic land of Pałuki and the Gniezno Lake Area on the river Gąsawka.-Etymology:The name originates from the Polish word...

, Śniadecki studied at Kraków University

Jagiellonian University

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....

 and in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. He was rector of the Imperial University of Vilnius, a member of the Commission of National Education

Komisja Edukacji Narodowej

The Commission of National Education was the central educational authority in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created by the Sejm and king Stanisław August Poniatowski on October 14, 1773...

, and director of astronomical observatories at Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

 and Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

. He died at Jašiūnai Manor

Jašiunai Manor

Jašiūnai Manor is the neoclassical manor in Jašiūnai, Šalčininkai district of Lithuania, near River Merkys.The manor palace, designed by a famous architect Karol Podczaszyński, commissioned by the rector of the Imperial University of Vilna, Jan Śniadecki was built in 1824-1828, alongside with...

 near Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

.

Śniadecki published many works, including his observations on recently discovered planetoids

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

. His O rachunku losów (On the Calculation of Chance, 1817) was a pioneering work in probability

Probability

Probability is ordinarily used to describe an attitude of mind towards some proposition of whose truth we arenot certain. The proposition of interest is usually of the form "Will a specific event occur?" The attitude of mind is of the form "How certain are we that the event will occur?" The...

.

He was brother to Jędrzej Śniadecki

Jedrzej Sniadecki

Jędrzej Śniadecki was a Polish writer, physician, chemist and biologist. His achievements include the creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry.-Life and work:...

.

Works

• "Rachunku algebraicznego teoria" (1783)
• "Geografia, czyli opisanie matematyczne i fizyczne ziemi" (1804)
• "Rozprawa o Koperniku" ( Discourse on Nicolaus Copernicus
  Nicolaus Copernicus
  Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....
  
  , biography, 1802)
• "O rachunku losów" (1817)
• "Trygonometria kulista analitycznie wyłożona" (1817)
• "O pismach klasycznych i romantycznych", Dziennik Wileński (1819)
• "Filozofia umysłu ludzkiego" (1821)

See also

• History of philosophy in Poland
• List of Poles