François Arago

François Arago (born Feb. 26, 1786, Estagel, Roussillon, France—died Oct. 2, 1853, Paris) was a French physicist who discovered the principle of the production of magnetism by rotation of a nonmagnetic conductor. He also devised an experiment that proved the wave theory of light and engaged with others in research that led to the discovery of the laws of light polarization.

Arago was educated in Perpignan and at the École Polytechnique, Paris, where, at the age of 23, he succeeded Gaspard Monge in the chair of analytic geometry. Subsequently he was director of the Paris Observatory and permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences. He was also active as a republican in French politics. As minister of war and marine in the provisional government formed after the Revolution of 1848, he introduced many reforms.

In 1820, elaborating on the work of H.C. Ørsted of Denmark, Arago showed that the passage of an electric current through a cylindrical spiral of copper wire caused it to attract iron filings as if it were a magnet and that the filings fell off when the current ceased. In 1824 he demonstrated that a rotating copper disk produced rotation in a magnetic needle suspended above it. Michael Faraday later proved these to be induction phenomena.

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Physics and Natural Law

Arago supported A.-J. Fresnel’s wave theory of light against the emission theory favoured by P.-S. Laplace, J.-B. Biot, and S.-D. Poisson. According to the wave theory, light should be retarded as it passes from a rarer to a denser medium; according to the emission theory, it should be accelerated. Arago’s test for comparing the velocity of light in air and in water or glass was described in 1838, but the experiment required such elaborate preparation that Arago was not ready to perform it until 1850, when his sight failed. Before his death, however, the retardation of light in denser media was demonstrated by A.-H.-L. Fizeau and Léon Foucault, who used his method with improvements in detail.

In astronomy, Arago is best known for his part in the dispute between U.-J.-J. Le Verrier, who was his protégé, and the English astronomer John C. Adams over priority in discovering the planet Neptune and over the naming of the planet. Arago had suggested in 1845 that Le Verrier investigate anomalies in the motion of Uranus. When the investigation resulted in Le Verrier’s discovery of Neptune, Arago proposed that the newly found planet be named for Le Verrier.