Jean Claude Eugène Péclet (10 February 1793 – 6 December 1857) was a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. He was born in

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerl ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Péclet became, in 1812, one of the first students of the

École Normale École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

with

Gay-Lussac Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (, , ; 6 December 1778 – 9 May 1850) was a French chemist and physicist. He is known mostly for his discovery that water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (with Alexander von Humboldt), for two laws ...

and Dulong being his professors. In 1816, he was elected professor at the Collège de Marseille and taught

physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phy ...

there until 1827. Being nominated ''

maître de conférences ''Maître'' (spelled ''Maitre'' according to post-1990 spelling rules) is a commonly used honorific for lawyers, judicial officers and notaries in France, Belgium, Switzerland and French-speaking parts of Canada. It is often written in its abbrev ...

'' (tenured position) at the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, he returned to Paris. In 1829, he became a professor of physics at the

École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

that was being founded by the businessman

Alphonse Lavallée Alphonse Lavallée (1791–1873) is the founder of the École Centrale Paris, a French ''Grande École''. He was born in Savigné-l'Évêque (Sarthe region, France). After studying law in Paris, Lavallée became the director of various compan ...

, by Péclet, and by two other scientists,

Jean-Baptiste Dumas Jean Baptiste André Dumas (14 July 180010 April 1884) was a French chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights (relative atomic masses) and molecular weights by measuring v ...

and

Théodore Olivier Théodore Olivier (1793–1853) was a French mathematician. Life and work Olivier studied in the ''Licée Imperial'' of Lyon where he obtained in 1811 a degree in mathematics with high honours. After this, he went to the École Polytechnique ...

. His salary was then 3000 Francs per year, plus a share of the profits of this private engineering school. In 1840, Péclet became inspecteur général de l'instruction publique. The

Péclet number In continuum mechanics, the Péclet number (, after Jean Claude Eugène Péclet) is a class of dimensionless numbers relevant in the study of transport phenomena in a continuum. It is defined to be the ratio of the rate of advection of a physical ...

is named after him. He was

Coriolis Coriolis may refer to: * Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis (1792–1843), French mathematician, mechanical engineer and scientist * Coriolis force, the apparent deflection of moving objects from a straight path when viewed from a rotating frame of referen ...

's brother-in-law. He died in

Books by J.C.E. Péclet

Peclet, Jean-Claude-Eugène – Traité de l'éclairage, 1827 – BEIC 758684

Traité de l'éclairage
(De Malher et Cie, Paris, 1827)
Traité élémentaire de physique. Tome premier
(Hachette, Paris, 1838)
Traité élémentaire de physique. Tome second
(Hachette, Paris, 1838)
Traité élémentaire de physique. Planches
(Hachette, Paris, 1838)
Traité de la chaleur considérée dans ses applications.
(Masson, Paris, 1861, 3rd edition)
Traité de la chaleur considérée dans ses applications. Tome premier
(Masson, Paris, 1878, 4th edition)
Traité de la chaleur considérée dans ses applications. Tome deuxième
(Masson, Paris, 1878, 4th edition)
Traité de la chaleur considérée dans ses applications. Tome troisième
(Masson, Paris, 1878, 4th edition)
Traité complet des propriétés, de la préparation et de l'emploi des matières tinctoriales
by J. Ch. Leuchs with revisions by J. C. E. Péclet (De Malher et Cie, Paris, 1829)

External links

1793 births 1857 deaths French physicists École Normale Supérieure alumni Fluid dynamicists Scientists from Besançon {{france-physicist-stub