Abstract
If the word did not refer to someone who owns a shop where one buys spectacles, I would be tempted to call Fresnel an ‘optician’. Yet this would also be unfair, for he also contributed to electrodynamics (§14.2.4). Born in 1788 at Broglie in Normandy to an architect and builder, Augustin Jean Fresnel was brought up in Caen, where he studied at the local school. Entering the Ecole Polytechnique in 1804 with Binet, a year after Arago and a year before Cauchy, he passed out in 1806 to de Pronyés Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées and then worked as engineer in the Corps in road-building and similar projects in various dèpartements.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 Springer Basel AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Grattan-Guinness, I. (1990). The entry of Fresnel: physical optics, 1815–1824. In: Convolutions in French Mathematics, 1800–1840. Science Networks · Historical Studies, vol 4. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7811-1_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7811-1_13
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel
Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-7813-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-7811-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive