Jean-Baptiste Biot (April 21 1774, Paris – February 3 1862, Paris) was a French physicist and mathematician who in the early 1800s studied the relationship between electrical current and magnetism (see Biot-Savart law), as well as the polarisation of light passing through chemical solutions.

He was the first person to discover the unique optical properties of mica, and therefore the mica-based mineral biotite was named after him.

In 1804 he made a hot-air balloon ascent with Joseph Gay-Lussac to a height of five kilometres in an early investigation of the Earth's atmosphere.

There is a small crater on the Moon that is named for him.

The J. B. Biot who helped make and fly the Massia-Biot glider is a different person. See list of early flying machines.

External links

• • Catholic Enyclopedia article

1774 births | 1862 deaths | French physicists | French mathematicians | Members of the Académie française | Alumni_of_the_École_Polytechnique | Roman Catholic scientists

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