French mathematician and physicist (1768 – 1830)
His name is attached to one of mathematics' most powerful tools — the method that breaks any wave, any signal, any pattern into its underlying frequencies — and to the first description of how atmospheres trap heat.
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was born in Auxerre, Burgundy on 21 March 1768. A mathematician and physicist, he opened the investigation of what became Fourier series — techniques that evolved into Fourier analysis and harmonic analysis, now foundational across science and engineering. He applied the work to heat transfer and vibrations; the Fourier transform and Fourier's law of conduction carry his name. He's also credited with discovering the greenhouse effect. He died 16 May 1830.
Sourced, dated quotes from Joseph Fourier
The question of terrestrial temperature, one of the most remarkable and difficult in natural philosophy... I have... condensed in a single essay... the results of this theory.
The heat of the earth is derived from three sources...1. ...[S]olar rays; the unequal distribution of which causes diversities of climate.2.
The earth would have only the same temperature as the heavens, were it not for two causes... One is the internal heat... possessed at its formation...
Liquids are very poor conductors of heat; but they have, like aeriform media, the property of carrying it rapidly in certain directions.
Primary causes are unknown to us; but are subject to simple and constant laws, which may be discovered by observation, the study of them being the object of natural philosophy.
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