Mathematician:Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau

Mathematician

Belgian physicist and mathematician.

One of the first people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image.

Invented the first device to show a moving image by means of a series of stills, thereby inventing the concept of cinema.

Nationality

Belgian (although as that state did not exist at the time of his birth, he identified as French)

History

• Born: 14 October 1801 in Brussels, French Empire (now Belgium)
• 1827: Became a teacher of mathematics at the "Atheneum" school in Brussels
• 1829: Graduated as a doctor of physical and mathematical sciences from Liege
• 1832: Invented the phenakistiscope
• 1835: Appointed Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Ghent University
• Died: 15 September 1883 in Ghent, Belgium

Theorems and Definitions

• Plateau's Laws
• Plateau Problem
• Plateau-Rayleigh Instability (with Lord Rayleigh)

Results named for Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau can be found here.

Publications

• 1873: Statique expérimentale et théorique des liquides soumis aux seules forces moléculaires ("Experimental and theoretical statics of liquids subject to only molecular forces")

Sources

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

• 1991: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Geometry ... (previous) ... (next): A Chronological List Of Mathematicians