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Dominik Fransua AragoFrench scientist and politician, foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1829)
Date of Birth: 26.02.1786
Country:  France |
Content:
- Biography of Dominique François Arago
- Dominique François Arago passed away in Paris on October 2, 1853.
Biography of Dominique François Arago
Dominique François Jean Arago (1786–1853) was a French physicist, astronomer, and political figure. He was born on February 26, 1786 in Estagel, Eastern Pyrenees. Arago studied at the Polytechnic School in Paris and later became a professor of analytical geometry at the school from 1809 to 1831.
In 1830, Arago was appointed as the director of the Paris Observatory and the permanent secretary of the Paris Academy of Sciences. He also served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Lower Seine district from 1830 to 1848. After the revolution of 1848, he became a member of the provisional government and held the position of Minister of Marine.
Arago's scientific works focused on magnetism, optics, and astronomy. In 1811, he independently discovered chromatic polarization of light, separate from the works of Jean-Baptiste Biot and David Brewster. He also made the first observation of the rotation of the plane of polarization of light in quartz. In 1820, Arago discovered the magnetization of iron filings near a current-carrying conductor, known as magnetic induction. In 1824, he demonstrated the effect of a rotating metal plate on a magnetic needle, known as rotational magnetism. He established a connection between the Northern Lights and magnetic storms, which are changes in the Earth's magnetic field intensity.
Arago designed several optical instruments that were used in astronomy, physics, and meteorology, including the polariscope (1811), ulanometer (a device for measuring the blueness of the sky) (1815), and photometer for determining the brightness of stars (1833).
Arago supported Augustin-Jean Fresnel's wave theory of light and in 1838, he described an experiment that allowed for the comparison of the speed of light in air and denser mediums such as water and glass. This experiment was later conducted by Armand Fizeau and Léon Foucault in 1850.
Under Arago's guidance, Urbain Le Verrier conducted a mathematical analysis of deviations in the motion of the planet Uranus, which led to the discovery of the planet Neptune.
