Coriolis

Gustave Gaspard de Coriolis

Born: 21 May 1792 in Paris, France
Died: 19 Sept 1843 in Paris, France

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Coriolis was assistant professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique, Paris from 1816 to 1838 and studied mechanics and engineering mathematics. He is best remembered for the Coriolis force which appears in the paper Sur les équations du mouvement relatif des systèmes de corps (1835). He showed that the laws of motion could be used in a rotating frame of reference if an extra force called the Coriolis acceleration is added to the equations of motion.

Coriolis also introduced the terms 'work' and 'kinetic energy' with their present scientific meaning. In 1835 Coriolis wrote on a mathematical theory of billiards in Théorie mathématique des effets du jeu de billiard . He also wrote Traité de la mécanique des corps
solides (1844).

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. F S Freiman, Gaspard Gustave Coriolis (Moscow, 1961). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996