Adhemar, Alphonse Joseph (1797–1862) French mathematician Adhemar, who was born and died in Paris, France, was a private mathematics tutor who also produced a number of popular mathematical textbooks.

His most important scientific work was his Les Revolutions de la mer (1842) in which he was the first to propose a plausible mechanism by which astronomical events could produce ice ages on Earth. It had been known for some time that while the Earth moved in an elliptical orbit around the Sun it also rotated about an axis that was tilted to its orbital plane. Because the orbit is elliptical and the Sun is at one focus, the Earth is closer to ...