JOSEPH FOURIER: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS, ATTRIBUTED QUOTES - ARTE - 2025

Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) was a teacher, mathematician and physicist of French origin, who is recognized for discovering the convergent trigonometric series, by means of which he could determine the conduction of heat and vibrations in solid bodies.

His theory of heat also helped to understand light and sound. Later, it would allow to solve problems of physics, engineering and telecommunications. He also developed the mathematical transformation that bears his name, on which the study of any wave phenomenon is based.

Portrait of Joseph Fourier. Source: Jules Boilly

Fourier stood out as the first to give a scientific explanation for the greenhouse effect. He is also known for being one of the 100 academics recruited by Napoleon Bonaparte for his expedition to Egypt and for participating in the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

Biography

Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Baron Fourier was born on March 21, 1768, in the city of Auxerre, located in the Burgundy region of France.

His father was a tailor who remarried after the death of his first wife. Joseph was the ninth of 12 children from that second marriage. He was orphaned at an early age since his mother died when he was nine years old and the following year, his father.

The municipal administration managed to get him to be adopted by Joseph Pallais, who taught him Latin, French and part of the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who would later inspire the French Revolution. Then he entered the École Royale Militaire, where he excelled in literature, but even more so in mathematics.

Despite his passion for numbers, he decided in 1787 to dedicate himself to religious life, entering the abbey of the Benedictine order of St. Benoit-sur-Loire. But his interest in mathematics persisted, so he did not take his religious vows.

In 1790 he took over the chair of mathematics at the school where he began his training and, in parallel, he continued his research in algebra.

The ideals of the French Revolution involved him in the political conflict, joining the local Revolutionary Committee from 1793. A year later he was arrested and imprisoned, but the triumphs of the revolution saved him from the guillotine.

Upon his release, he focused on improving his skills as a teacher, entering the École Normale de Paris, where training was offered in the art of teaching. His research in mathematics continued during this time

With the opening of the École Polytechnique and entering as a teacher of the faculty, he became a colleague of prominent mathematicians of his time such as Gaspard Monge, Giuseppe Lagrangia and Pierre-Simon Laplace.

Expedition to Egypt

In 1798, at the age of 30, he set sail for Egypt as a scientific advisor with Napoleon Bonaparte, 30,000 soldiers and more than 100 academics. There he witnessed how the French fleet was occupying Malta, Alexandria and Cairo.

When French power was established, Fourier helped found the Institut d'Égypte, of which he was secretary. He also carried out archaeological explorations and was in charge of comparing scientific and literary discoveries until 1801.

That year, before the victory of the British and the French surrender, he returned to his country with a collection of archaeological objects. Among them was a copy of the Rosetta Stone, renowned for being the first ancient multilingual text discovered in modern times.

Development of his theory of heat

The mathematician was about to resume his academic work when he was appointed prefect of Grenoble, capital of the department of Isère. He spent 14 years in office and stood out for his administrative management. He also built an important section of the road to Turin.

During this period he made outstanding contributions to the work Description de l'Égypte, in addition to writing the preface. In parallel he began his experiments on the propagation of heat. His conclusions sparked controversy among mathematicians for an equation that attempted to describe heat in solid bodies.

Critics did not stop him and he continued to work on his theory until December 1807 when he presented it to the Paris Institute. Although some of the most important mathematicians rejected it instantly, such as Lagrange, Laplace, Legendre, Euler and Poisson, the same institution would reward him for his memoirs four years later.

Last years

The mathematician, who had obtained the noble title of baron during Napoleon's rule, manages to survive after his fall. He was in charge of the Statistical Office of the Seine and devoted himself exclusively to academic life in Paris.

In 1817 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences and in 1822 he was elected Permanent Secretary of the institution. That year he succeeded in publishing the Analytical Theory of Heat, despite the criticism it had received for an alleged lack of mathematical rigor.

Later he was admitted to the French Literary Academy and the Academy of Medicine, thanks to his contributions in Egyptology. He was also elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

On May 16, 1830, at the age of 62, Joseph Fourier died in Paris, France. His death was reportedly caused by a heart ailment, although some believed that he contracted a disease during his years in Egypt. He did not finish his work on solving equations, although the following year the progress he had made to prove his theorem was published.

In addition to having designated the mathematical tools he developed with his surname, a bronze statue was erected in his hometown in 1849. An asteroid also bears his name, as does the University of Grenoble.

Contributions

Bust of Joseph Fourier in the Museum of the Old Bishop's Palace in Grenoble. Source: © Guillaume Piolle

Fourier's great contributions are concentrated in the fields of physics and mathematics, but his application includes many other sciences such as astronomy, medicine, climatology, oceanography, engineering and chemistry. His work was the starting point of the trigonometric series and of the functions of real variables.

Specifically, his formulation of the theory of heat and the mathematical laws with which he explains its propagation stands out, contributing to the foundations of thermodynamics. The heat equation was a differential equation that describes how heat is distributed and how the temperature varies in each area and over a period of time.

He also developed the Fourier Series, which consists of the decomposition of a periodic signal in terms of more basic signals. This mathematical tool is applied in areas such as vibratory analysis, data compression, acoustics, image and signal processing.

Another of his great contributions was the Fourier Transform. It is a key mathematical function in areas such as telecommunications, statistics, optics, and physics. This function allows you to transform signals of a temporal or spatial nature, as well as those of periodic movement.

Fourier also carried out research in meteorology, among which his reasoning about the greenhouse effect stands out. In them he suggested that interstellar radiation caused much of the Earth's heat and, for the first time, the atmosphere was considered as an insulating element.

His contributions cannot fail to mention the various articles in Egyptology and in the History of Science. Not surprisingly, he is one of 72 scientists enrolled on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Plays

Among the most outstanding works of the French mathematician are those related to the field of heat theory:

-Rapport sur les tontines (1821)

-Théorie analytique de la chaleur (1822)

-Remarques générales sur les températures du globe terrestrial et des espaces planétaires (1824)

-Analyse des équations determinées (1827)

-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 (1827)

-Remarques générales sur l'application du principe de l'analyse algébrique aux équations transcendantes (1827)

-Mémoire d'analyse sur le mouvement de la chaleur dans les fluides (1833).

Attributed citations

- "The deep study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discoveries."

- “There cannot be a more universal and simple language, more devoid of errors and obscurities, and therefore more apt to express the invariable relationships of natural things. Mathematics seems to constitute a faculty of the human mind destined to compensate for the shortness of life and the imperfection of the senses ”.

- “The primary causes are unknown to us; but they are subject to simple and constant laws, which can be discovered by observation, their study being the object of natural philosophy ”.

- “Heat, like gravity, penetrates every substance in the universe, its rays occupy all parts of space. The objective of our work is to establish the mathematical laws that this element obeys. The theory of heat will form from now on one of the most important branches of general physics ”.

- Mathematics compares the most diverse phenomena and discovers the secret analogies that unite them.

References

1. Joseph Fourier. (2019, November 1). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
2. MCN Biografias.com. (sf) Fourier, Jean-Baptiste Joseph (1768-1827). Recovered from mcnbiografias.com
3. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, December 17). Joseph Fourier. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
4. Struik, DJ (2019, May 12). Joseph Fourier. Encyclopædia Britannica. Recovered from britannica.com
5. Joseph Fourier. (2019, July 05). Wikiquote, Compendium of famous phrases. Recovered from es.wikiquote.org
6. O'Connor, JJ, & Robertson, EF (nd). Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier. Recovered from st-andrews.ac.uk