1. Augustin-Jean Fresnel
10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827
"All the compliments that I have received from Arago, Laplace
and Biot never gave me so much pleasure as the discovery of
a theoretic truth, or the confirmation of a calculation by
experiment."

2. • Fresnel was a French physicist
o was born in Broglie, France.
o son of an architect.
• Was a very slow learner in his early years. He couldn't read
until the age of 8.
o entered the École Centrale in Caen at 13.
o entered École Polytechnique at 16.
o later entered went to the École des Ponts et Chaussées.
• Served as an engineer successively in the departments of
Vendee, Drome and Ille-et-Vilaine
o Napoleon's return to power in 1814
 for having supported the Bourbons, he lost his
appointment.
• During second restoration of the monarchy he received a
post as engineer in lighthouses in Paris.
o was there from then on for most of his life.

3.
• He is best known for inventing the Fresnel lens.
o first used in lighthouses
 in replacement of mirrors
o found in many applications today.
• Fresnel studied the behavior of light theoretically and
with experiments
o contributed significantly to the establishment of the theory
of wave optics.
• Royal Society of London awarded him the Rumford Medal.
• Wrote a memoir on diffraction in 1818.
o received the prize of the Academie des Sciences at Paris
• He only got public recognition during his lifetime for his work
on optical science.
o Some of his papers were not even printed many years
after his death by the Academie des Sciences.
 thougth vanity and recognition was blunt

4. Discoveries
• His discoveries and mathematical deductions extended the
wave theory of light to a large class of optical phenomena.
o building on experimental work by Thomas Young.
• Showed via mathematical methods that polarization could
be explained if light was entirely transverse, with no
longitudinal vibration whatsoever in 1821.
• Diffraction effects with two plane mirrors of metal forming a
degree of 180.
o agrees with the interference in accordance with the wave
theory.

6. references
"Augustin-Jean Fresnel." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 Oct. 2010 <
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219805/Augustin-Jea
>.
"Fresnel, Augustin." The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book
Inc., 525 West Monroe, Chicago, Ill., 1999.
95031444

7. references
"Augustin-Jean Fresnel." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 17 Oct. 2010 <
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219805/Augustin-Jea
>.
"Fresnel, Augustin." The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book
Inc., 525 West Monroe, Chicago, Ill., 1999.
95031444