biography
| name: |
Fresnel, Augustin Jean
|
pronunciation:
[fraynel]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1788–1827)
|
| biography:
| Physicist, born in Broglie, NW France. He studied engineering at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées. He began his investigations of interference fringes in light in 1814, and did much to substantiate the wave theory of light. He also developed a more effective lighthouse lens, adapting an idea originated by Buffon (1748). The Fresnel lens is still used in lighthouses, and in many other fields. |
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