Biography
Fizeau was born in Paris to Louis and Béatrice. His earliest work was concerned with improvements in photographic processes. Following suggestions by François Arago, Léon Foucault and Fizeau collaborated in a series of investigations on the interference of light and heat. In 1848, he predicted the redshifting of electromagnetic waves.
In 1849 he was the first person to measure the speed of light on Earth. He used a beam of light reflected from a mirror 8 km away. The beam passed through the gaps between teeth of a rapidly rotating wheel. The speed of the wheel was increased until the returning light passed through the next gap and could be seen. He calculated the speed of light to be 315,000 km/s. In 1849 he published the first results obtained by his method for determining the speed of light (see Fizeau-Foucault apparatus). Fizeau in 1864 made the first suggestion that the "length of a light wave be used as a length standard".
He was involved in the discovery of the Doppler effect.
In 1853 he described the use of the capacitor (then called the condenser) as a means to increase the efficiency of the induction coil. Subsequently he studied the thermal expansion of solids, and applied the phenomenon of interference of light to the measurement of the dilatations of crystals. He became a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1860 and of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1878. He died at Venteuil on September 18, 1896.
His is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
Read more about this topic: Hippolyte Fizeau
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