|
|
Jean-Baptiste Biot
Jean-Baptiste Biot (April 21, 1774, Paris – February 3, 1862, Paris) was a French physicist and mathematician who in the early 1800s studied (with Felix Savart) the relationship between electrical current and magnetism (see Biot-Savart Law), as well as the polarisation of light passing through chemical solutions.
He was the first person to discover the unique optical properties of mica, and therefore the mica-based mineral biotite was named after him.
In 1804 he made a hot-air balloon ascent with Joseph Gay-Lussac to a height of five kilometres in an early investigation of the Earth's atmosphere.
There is a small crater on the Moon that is named for him.
See also
External links
- Biography (http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Biot.html) at the MacTutor archive
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia Encyclopedia article "Jean Baptiste Biot"
