author
H. (Hippolyte) Fizeau
1819–1896
Best known for the first successful terrestrial measurement of the speed of light, this French physicist helped turn light itself into a subject of precise experiment. His work also touched photography, optics, and the behavior of light in moving water.
1 Audiobook
On the effect of the motion of a body upon the velocity with which it is traversed by light
by H. (Hippolyte) Fizeau
About the author
Born in Paris in 1819, Hippolyte Fizeau became one of the standout experimental physicists of 19th-century France. He is especially remembered for his 1849 measurement of the speed of light using a toothed wheel apparatus, a landmark achievement that showed such a fundamental constant could be measured on Earth rather than only inferred from astronomy.
Fizeau also worked with Léon Foucault on studies of light and heat, contributed to early photographic methods, and carried out the famous 1851 experiment on light traveling through moving water. That result became an important part of later discussions in optics and physics.
He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences and later received major recognition including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. Fizeau died in 1896, but his reputation has lasted as that of a careful, inventive experimenter who helped make modern optical physics possible.