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Augustin-Jean Fresnel — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-07T23:14:27.183Z
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Augustin-Jean Fresnel — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_2affd41fc316 (Metraipolis archive dc_2affd41fc316, sha256 3d741657e256a03506eb0fda7194e8ecff9e3250a3c84944c8ed7b90051a12c6)

BibTeX

@misc{dc2affd41fc316,
  title = {Augustin-Jean Fresnel — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_2affd41fc316; sha256 3d741657e256a03506eb0fda7194e8ecff9e3250a3c84944c8ed7b90051a12c6},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, fully supplanting Newton's corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better known for inventing the catadioptric (reflective/refractive) Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of "stepped" lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses, saving countless lives at sea. The simpler dioptric (purely refractive) stepped lens, first proposed by Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel, is used in screen magnifiers and in condenser lenses for overhead projectors. Fresnel gave the first satisfactory explanation of diffraction by straight edges, including the first satisfactory wave-based explanation of rectilinear propagation. By further supposing that light waves are purely transverse, Fresnel explained the nature of polarization. He then worked on double refraction. Fresnel had a lifelong battle with tuberculosis, to which he succumbed at the age of 39. He lived just long enough to receive recognition from his peers, including (on his deathbed) the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, and his name is ubiquitous in the modern terminology of optics and waves. After the wave theory of light was subsumed by Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in the 1860s, some attention was diverted from the magnitude of Fresnel's contribution. In the period between Fresnel's unification of physical optics and Maxwell's wider unification, a contemporary authority, Humphrey Lloyd, described Fresnel's transverse-wave theory as "the noblest fabric which has ever adorned the domain of physical science, Newton's system of the universe alone excepted".

Tema degli esploratori: fisica e astronomia (deposito sistematico; ricerca «optics»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Augustin-Jean Fresnel» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel
Wikidata Q187241 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q187241
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1366729917, consultata il 2026-10-07T22:53:05.246Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: bf42820628994b72b8b9eaa6a4d77d672c5e236ec711174419734a717e867ec1