ProofWiki:Mathematicians/Joseph Fourier

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician and physicist best known for the Fourier series and his application of this technique to the problem of heat conduction.

Also developed the technique of dimensional analysis, and discovered the greenhouse effect.

Nationality

French

History

• Born: 21 March 1768, Auxerre, Bourgogne, France
• Died: 16 May 1830, Paris, France

Theorems and Definitions

• Fourier Series
• Fourier Transform
• Fourier's Law
• Fourier Analysis
• Heat Equation
• Sum Notation
• Fourier Coefficients
• Fourier-Stieltjes Coefficients (with Thomas Stieltjes)

Books and Papers

• 1807: On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies
• 1810: Description of Egypt
• 1820: Refroidissement séculaire du globe terrestre (Bulletin des Sciences par la Société Philomathique de Paris Vol. 3, 7: 58 – 70)
• 1822: Théorie analytique de la chaleur

• Historical Précis (unpublished)

Also see

• John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson: "Joseph Fourier": MacTutor History of Mathematics archive

• Eric Temple Bell: Men of Mathematics (1937): Chapter $\text{XII}$
• George F. Simmons: Calculus Gems (1992), Chapter $\text {A}.24$