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Fourier began his work on the Théorie analytique de la chaleur in Grenoble in 1807 and completed it in Paris in 1822.
- Dirk Jan Struik
In 1801, [4] Napoleon appointed Fourier Prefect (Governor) of the Department of Isère in Grenoble, where he oversaw road construction and other projects. However, Fourier had previously returned home from the Napoleon expedition to Egypt to resume his academic post as professor at École Polytechnique when Napoleon decided otherwise in his remark
- Joseph Fourier – Early Years
- Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt
- The Mathematical Theory of Heat
- The Fourier Series
- Napoleon’s Decline
- Later Years
- The Greenhouse Effect
- …And The Rosetta Stone
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was born on March 21, 1768, in a modest family at Auxerre, France, as the son of a tailor. Orphaned already at age nine, Fourier was recommended to the Bishop of Auxerre, and through this introduction, he was educated by the Benvenistes of the Convent of St. Mark. While he showed an aptitude and flair for literature, th...
Fourier went with Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian expedition in 1798 as scientific advisor, and was made governor of Lower Egypt and secretary of the Institut d’Égypte. Through the help of Fourier, Napoleon set up French type political institutions and administration. Cut off from France by the English fleet, Fourier organized the workshops on w...
Fourier was not happy at the prospect of leaving the academic world in Paris, but could not refuse Napoleon’s request. He went to Grenoble where his duties as Prefect were manifold. His two greatest achievements in this administrative position were overseeing the operation to drain the swamps of Bourgoin and supervising the construction of a new hi...
The Fourier series is the series development of a periodic, continuous function in sections into a series of functions consisting of sine and cosine functions. Fourier now claimed in his work Théorie analytique de la chaleur that such series developments existed for all functions. This claim was initially rejected by leading mathematicians such as ...
In 1814, Fourier was placed in a tricky position, when Napoleon abdicated and set out for Elba with every likelihood of passing southward through Grenoble. To greet his old master would jeopardize his standing with the new king Louis XVIII and thus, Fourier influenced the choice of a changed route and kept his job. Unfortunately, Napoleon reappeare...
Finally, Fourier moved back to Paris and back to enter scientific life again, being elected to the Académie des Sciences in 1817. In 1823, he became its permanent secretary and in 1826 also for the Académie Francaise. But, Fourier’s health started deteriorating in 1830. While he had already experienced attacks of aneurism of the heart when he was i...
One of his lesser known legacies is the 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 additiona...
Also, when Fourier returned from Egypt in 1801 with many artifacts found on the Napoleon expedition, he also had an ink pressed copy of the Rosetta Stone with him, which he happened to introduce to Jean Francois Champollion, who should become the man who deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphswith the help of the Rosetta stone. But this is already anot...
May 29, 2018 · Fourier proved himself a tactful diplomat, and upon his return to France Napoleon appointed him perfect of the department of lsère, with Grenoble as its capital, where he served from 1801 to 1814. There he wrote the work on the mathematical theory of heat conduction which earned him lasting fame.
Fourier had experienced the heat and aridity of Cairo, where rain is extremely unusual between April and October, and the temperature will often reach 35 C (95 F) or higher. In Grenoble, he would rarely feel temperatures much above 21 C (70 F), though on occasion 30 C (86 F) was possible.
It was during his time in Grenoble that Fourier did his important mathematical work on the theory of heat. His work on the topic began around 1804 and by 1807 he had completed his important memoir On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies.
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After the British victories and the capitulation of the French under General Menou in 1801, Fourier returned to France, and on January 2, 1802, was made prefect of Isère, based in Grenoble. As prefect, he acted to bring peace among warring political factions, and promoted engineering projects such as the drainage of swamps to create fertile ...
