Joseph Fourier - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Joseph_Fourier

Joseph Fourier
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (/ˈfʊrieɪ, -iər/;[1] French:
Joseph Fourier
[fuʁje]; 21 March 1768 – 16 May 1830) was a French
mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre and best
known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series,
which eventually developed into Fourier analysis and
harmonic analysis, and their applications to problems of
heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and
Fourier's law of conduction are also named in his honour.
Fourier is also generally credited with the discovery of the
greenhouse effect.[2]

Biography
Fourier was born in Auxerre (now in the Yonne
département of France), the son of a tailor. He was
orphaned at the age of nine. Fourier was recommended to Born Jean-Baptiste
the Bishop of Auxerre and, through this introduction, he Joseph Fourier
was educated by the Benedictine Order of the Convent of St. 21 March 1768
Mark. The commissions in the scientific corps of the army Auxerre, Kingdom
were reserved for those of good birth, and being thus of France
ineligible, he accepted a military lectureship on Died 16 May 1830
mathematics. He took a prominent part in his own district (aged 62)
in promoting the French Revolution, serving on the local Paris, France
Revolutionary Committee. He was imprisoned briefly
Alma mater École Normale
during the Terror but, in 1795, was appointed to the École Supérieure
Normale and subsequently succeeded Joseph-Louis
Known for See list [show]
Lagrange at the École Polytechnique.
Fourier number
Fourier accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian Fourier series
expedition in 1798, as scientific adviser, and was appointed Fourier transform
secretary of the Institut d'Égypte. Cut off from France by
Fourier's law of
the British fleet, he organized the workshops on which the
conduction
French army had to rely for their munitions of war. He also
contributed several mathematical papers to the Egyptian Fourier–Motzkin
elimination
Institute (also called the Cairo Institute) which Napoleon
founded at Cairo, with a view of weakening British influence Greenhouse effect
in the East. After the British victories and the capitulation Scientific career
of the French under General Menou in 1801, Fourier Fields Mathematician,
returned to France. physicist, historian

In 1801,[4] Napoleon appointed Fourier Prefect (Governor) Institutions École Normale

of the Department of Isère in Grenoble, where he oversaw Supérieure
road construction and other projects. However, Fourier had École Polytechnique

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previously returned home from the Napoleon expedition to Academic Jean-Baptiste Biot
Egypt to resume his academic post as professor at École advisors Joseph-Louis
Polytechnique when Napoleon decided otherwise in his Lagrange
remark
Notable Peter Gustav
students Lejeune Dirichlet
... the Prefect of the Department of Isère
having recently died, I would like to express Claude-Louis Navier
my confidence in citizen Fourier by appointing Giovanni Plana
him to this place.[4]

Hence being faithful to Napoleon, he took the office of

Prefect.[4] It was while at Grenoble that he began to
experiment on the propagation of heat. He presented
his paper On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies to
the Paris Institute on 21 December 1807. He also
contributed to the monumental Description de l'Égypte.
[5]

In 1822, Fourier succeeded Jean Baptiste Joseph

Delambre as Permanent Secretary of the French
Academy of Sciences. In 1830, he was elected a foreign
member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Fourier never married.[6]
In 1830, his diminished health began to take its toll:
1820 watercolor caricatures of French
mathematicians Adrien-Marie Legendre
(left) and Joseph Fourier (right) by
French artist Julien-Léopold Boilly,
watercolor portrait numbers 29 and 30 of
Album de 73 Portraits-Charge Aquarellés
des Membres de I’Institut.[3]

Fourier had already experienced, in Egypt and

Grenoble, some attacks of aneurysm of the heart. At
Paris, it was impossible to be mistaken with respect to
the primary cause of the frequent suffocations which
he experienced. A fall, however, which he sustained
on the 4th of May 1830, while descending a flight of
stairs, aggravated the malady to an extent beyond
what could have been ever feared.[7]

Shortly after this event, he died in his bed on 16 May 1830.

Fourier was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, a Portrait of Fourier by Claude
tomb decorated with an Egyptian motif to reflect his position Gautherot, circa 1806.
as secretary of the Cairo Institute, and his collation of
Description de l'Égypte. His name is one of the 72 names
inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.

A bronze statue was erected in Auxerre in 1849, but it was melted down for armaments during
World War II. Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble was named after him.

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The Analytic Theory of Heat

In 1822, Fourier published his work on heat flow in Théorie analytique de la chaleur (The
Analytical Theory of Heat),[8] in which he based his reasoning on Newton's law of cooling,
namely, that the flow of heat between two adjacent molecules is proportional to the extremely
small difference of their temperatures. This book was translated,[9] with editorial 'corrections',
[10] into English 56 years later by Freeman (1878).[11] The book was also edited, with many

editorial corrections, by mathematician Jean Gaston Darboux and republished in French in

1888.[10]

There were three important contributions in this work, one purely mathematical, two essentially
physical. In mathematics, Fourier claimed that any function of a variable, whether continuous
or discontinuous, can be expanded in a series of sines of multiples of the variable. Though this
result is not correct without additional conditions, Fourier's observation that some
discontinuous functions are the sum of infinite series was a breakthrough. The question of
determining when a Fourier series converges has been fundamental for centuries. Joseph-Louis
Lagrange had given particular cases of this (false) theorem, and had implied that the method
was general, but he had not pursued the subject. Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet was the first to
give a satisfactory demonstration of it with some restrictive conditions. This work provides the
foundation for what is today known as the Fourier transform.

One important physical contribution in the book was the concept of dimensional homogeneity
in equations; i.e. an equation can be formally correct only if the dimensions match on either
side of the equality; Fourier made important contributions to dimensional analysis.[12] The
other physical contribution was Fourier's proposal of his partial differential equation for
conductive diffusion of heat. This equation is now taught to every student of mathematical
physics.

Real roots of polynomials

Fourier left an unfinished work on determining and locating real
roots of polynomials, which was edited by Claude-Louis Navier and
published in 1831. This work contains much original matter—in
particular, Fourier's theorem on polynomial real roots, published in
1820. Fourier's theorem on real roots of polynomials states that a
polynomial with real coefficients has a real root between any two
consecutive zeros of its derivative.[13][14] François Budan, in 1807
and 1811, had published independently his theorem (also known by
the name of Fourier), which is very close to Fourier's theorem (each
theorem is a corollary of the other). Fourier's proof[13] is the one
that was usually given, during 19th century, in textbooks on the
theory of equations.[a] A complete solution of the problem was
given in 1829 by Jacques Charles François Sturm.[15]
Bust of Fourier in Grenoble

Discovery of the greenhouse effect

In the 1820s, Fourier calculated that an object the size of the Earth, and at its distance from the
Sun, should be considerably colder than the planet actually is if warmed by only the effects of
incoming solar radiation. He examined various possible sources of the additional observed heat

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in articles published in 1824[16] and 1827.[17] However, in

the end, because of the large 33-degree difference between
his calculations and observations, Fourier mistakenly
believed that there is a significant contribution of radiation
from interstellar space. Still, Fourier's consideration of the
possibility that the Earth's atmosphere might act as an
insulator of some kind is widely recognized as the first
proposal of what is now known as the greenhouse effect,[18]
although Fourier never called it that.[19][20]

In his articles, Fourier referred to an experiment by Horace

Bénédict de Saussure, who lined a vase with blackened cork.
Into the cork, he inserted several panes of transparent glass,
separated by intervals of air. Midday sunlight was allowed to
enter at the top of the vase through the glass panes. The
The grave of Jean-Baptiste Joseph
temperature became more elevated in the more interior
Fourier in Père Lachaise cemetery,
compartments of this device. Fourier noted that if gases in
Paris
the atmosphere could form a stable barrier like the glass
panes they would have a similar effect on planetary
temperatures.[17] This conclusion may have contributed to the later use of the metaphor of the
"greenhouse effect" to refer to the processes that determine atmospheric temperatures.[21]
Fourier noted that the actual mechanisms that determine the temperatures of the atmosphere
included convection, which was not present in de Saussure's experimental device.

Works
"Sur l'usage du théorème de Descartes dans la
recherche des limites des racines" (https://archive.org/d
etails/bulletindesscien20soci). Bulletin des Sciences,
Par la Société Philomatique de Paris: 156 (https://archiv
e.org/details/bulletindesscien20soci/page/156)–165.
1820.
Théorie analytique de la chaleur (https://archive.org/deta
ils/bub_gb_TDQJAAAAIAAJ) (in French). Paris: Firmin
Didot Père et Fils. 1822. OCLC 2688081 (https://www.w
orldcat.org/oclc/2688081).
Théorie analitique de la chaleur (https://gutenberg.be
ic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11917672) (in
French). Vol. 1. Paris: Gauthier-Villars. 1888.
"Remarques Générales Sur Les Températures Du Globe
Terrestre Et Des Espaces Planétaires" (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=1Jg5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA136). Théorie analitique de la chaleur,
Annales de Chimie et de Physique. 27: 136–167. 1824a. 1888
Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis; Arago, François, eds.
(1824b). "Resume theorique des Proprietes de la
chaleur rayonette" (https://books.google.com/books?id=1Jg5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA236).
Annales de Chimie et de Physique. 27. Paris: 236–281.
Mémoire sur la température du globe terrestre et des espaces planétaires (http://gallica.bnf.f
r/ark:/12148/bpt6k32227.image.r=memoires+de+l%27academie+des+sciences.f808.langE

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N). Vol. 7. Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences. 1827a. pp. 569–604. Translation
by W M Connolley (http://www.wmconnolley.org.uk/sci/fourier_1827/fourier_1827.html)
Mémoire sur la distinction des racines imaginaires, et sur l'application des théorèmes
d'analyse algébrique aux équations transcendantes qui dépendant de la théorie de la
chaleur (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k32227/f844.image.r=memoires+de+l'academie
+des+sciences.langEN). Vol. 7. Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Institut
de France. 1827b. pp. 605–624.
Analyse des équations déterminées (https://web.archive.org/web/20110930023956/http://nu
m-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr:8080/827/). Vol. 10. Firmin Didot frères. 1827c. pp. 119–146.
Archived from the original (http://num-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr:8080/827/) on 30 September
2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
Remarques générales sur l'application du principe de l'analyse algébrique aux équations
transcendantes (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k32255.image.r=memoires+de+l%27aca
demie+des+sciences.f346.langEN). Vol. 10. Paris: Memoirs of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of the Institut de France. 1827d. pp. 119–146.
Mémoire d'analyse sur le mouvement de la chaleur dans les fluides (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/
12148/bpt6k3227s.image.r=memoires+de+l%27academie+des+sciences.f620.langEN).
Vol. 12. Paris: Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Institut de France. 1833.
pp. 507–530.
Rapport sur les tontines (http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3220m.image.f568.pagination.l
angEN). Vol. 5. Paris: Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the Institut de France.
1821. pp. 26–43.

See also
Fourier analysis
Fourier–Deligne transform
Heat equation
Least-squares spectral analysis
List of things named after Joseph Fourier

References
a. These questions were no more considered as important from the end of 19th century to the
second half of 20th century, where they reappeared for the need of computer algebra.
1. "Fourier" (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Fourier). Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online).
n.d.
2. Cowie, J. (2007). Climate Change: Biological and Human Aspects (https://archive.org/detail
s/climatechangebio00cowi). Cambridge University Press. p. 3 (https://archive.org/details/cli
matechangebio00cowi/page/n20). ISBN 978-0-521-69619-7.
3. Boilly, Julien-Léopold. (1820). Album de 73 Portraits-Charge Aquarelle’s des Membres de
I’Institute (watercolor portrait (https://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie
=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.photo.rmn.fr%2Fcf%2Fhtm%2FCSearc
hZ.aspx%3FE%3D2K1KTS6T7WAMK%26SubE%3D2C6NU00YI4TE&sl=auto&tl=en) #29).
Biliotheque de l’Institut de France.
4. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Joseph Fourier" (https://mathshistory.st-andrew
s.ac.uk/Biographies/Fourier.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews

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Joseph Fourier - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Fourier

5. Nowlan, Robert. A Chronicle of Mathematical People (https://web.archive.org/web/2016030

4034040/http://www.robertnowlan.com/pdfs/Fourier,%20Joseph.pdf) (PDF). Archived from
the original (http://www.robertnowlan.com/pdfs/Fourier,%20Joseph.pdf) (PDF) on 4 March
2016. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
6. "No. 1878: Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier" (https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1878.htm).
www.uh.edu. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
7. Arago, François (1857). Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (http://www.gutenberg.o
rg/files/16775/16775-h/16775-h.htm).
8. Fourier 1822.
9. Freeman, A. (1878). The Analytical Theory of Heat, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
UK, cited by Truesdell, C.A. (1980), The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics, 1822–
1854, Springer, New York, ISBN 0-387-90403-4, page 52.
10. Truesdell, C.A. (1980). The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics, 1822–1854, Springer,
New York, ISBN 0-387-90403-4, page 52.
11. Gonzalez, Rafael; Woods, Richard E. (2010). Digital Image Processing (Third ed.). Upper
Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-13-234563-7.
12. Mason, Stephen F.: A History of the Sciences (Simon & Schuster, 1962), p. 169.
13. Fourier 1820.
14. Grattan-Guinness, I. (1970). "Joseph Fourier's Anticipation of Linear Programming" (https://
www.jstor.org/stable/3008492). Operational Research Quarterly. 21 (3): 361–364. doi:
10.2307/3008492 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3008492). JSTOR 3008492 (https://www.jsto
r.org/stable/3008492).Retrieved 21 March 2023.
15. . A. Rosenbaum and E. L. Davis, Fourier's Theorem, . A. Rosenbaum and E. L. Davis
16. Fourier 1824a.
17. Fourier 1827a.
18. Weart, S. (2008). "The Carbon Dioxide Greenhouse Effect" (https://web.archive.org/web/201
61111201545/https://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm). Archived from the original (http://
www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm) on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
19. Fleming, J R (1999). "Joseph Fourier, the "greenhouse effect", and the quest for a universal
theory of terrestrial temperatures". Endeavour. 23 (2): 72–75. doi:10.1016/
s0160-9327(99)01210-7 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fs0160-9327%2899%2901210-7).
20. Baum, Sr., Rudy M. (2016). "Future Calculations: The first climate change believer" (https://
www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/future-calculations). Distillations. 2 (2): 38–39.
Retrieved 22 March 2018.
21. Osman, Jheni (2011), 100 Ideas that Changed the World (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=SescGntKYTkC&pg=PT65), Random House, p. 65, ISBN 9781446417485, "[Fourier]
didn't call his discovery the greenhouse effect but future scientists named it that after an
experiment by [de Saussure] which influenced Fourier's work".

Further reading
Initial text from the public domain Rouse History of Mathematics
Fourier, Joseph. (1822). Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur. Firmin Didot (reissued by
Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00180-9)
Fourier, Joseph. (1878). The Analytical Theory of Heat. Cambridge University Press
(reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ISBN 978-1-108-00178-6)
Fourier, J.-B.-J. (1824). Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de l'Institut de
France VII. 570–604 (https://web.archive.org/web/20140716094720/http://www.academie-sc
iences.fr/activite/archive/dossiers/Fourier/Fourier_pdf/Mem1827_p569_604.pdf) (Mémoire
sur Les Temperatures du Globe Terrestre et Des Espaces Planetaires – greenhouse effect

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essay published in 1827)

Fourier, J. Éloge historique de Sir William Herschel, prononcé dans la séance publique de
l'Académie royale des sciences le 7 Juin, 1824. Historie de l'Académie Royale des Sciences
de l'Institut de France, tome vi., année 1823, p. lxi.[Pg 227]

External links
Media related to Joseph Fourier at Wikimedia Commons

O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Joseph Fourier" (https://mathshistory.st-andrew

s.ac.uk/Biographies/Fourier.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews
Fourier, J. B. J., 1824, Remarques Générales Sur Les Températures Du Globe Terrestre Et
Des Espaces Planétaires., in Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Vol. 27, pp. 136–167 –
translation by Burgess (1837). (http://fourier1824.geologist-1011.mobi)
Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France (http://www.ujf-grenoble.fr) Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20060622200040/http://w3houches.ujf-grenoble.fr/) 22 June 2006 at the
Wayback Machine
Joseph Fourier and the Vuvuzela (http://blog.mathsbank.co.uk/2010/06/joseph-fourier-and-v
uvuzela.html) on MathsBank.co.uk (http://mathsbank.co.uk) Archived (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20120428155940/http://mathsbank.co.uk/) 28 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
Joseph Fourier (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=17981) at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
Joseph Fourier – Œuvres complètes, tome 2 (https://web.archive.org/web/20130513152305/
http://portail.mathdoc.fr/cgi-bin/oetoc?id=OE_FOURIER__2) Gallican-Math
"Episode 2 - Joseph Fourier" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okGKd0W9-y8). YouTube.
École polytechnique. 16 January 2019. Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/
20211215/okGKd0W9-y8) from the original on 15 December 2021.

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