Jean-Baptiste Biot
Jean-Baptiste Biot (April 21 1774, Paris – February 3 1862, Paris) was a French physicist and mathematician who in the early 1800s studied the relationship between electrical current and magnetism (see Biot-Savart law), as well as the polarisation of light passing through chemical solutions.
He was the first person to discover the unique optical properties of mica, and therefore the mica-based mineral biotite was named after him.
In 1804 he made a hot-air balloon ascent with Joseph Gay-Lussac to a height of five kilometres in an early investigation of the Earth's atmosphere.
There is a small crater on the Moon that is named for him.
The J. B. Biot who helped make and fly the Massia-Biot glider is a different person. See list of early flying machines.
External links
- O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jean-Baptiste Biot", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
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