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Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was born in Auxerre, France on March 21, 1768 - the ninth of twelve children. He attended the Ecole Royal Militaire of Auxerre in 1780 where he first studied literature and then mathematics. He continued to study mathematics, even while training to become a priest in a Benedictine abbey in 1787. However, Fourier desired to make an impact in mathematics like Newton and Pascal. In 1794, he went to Paris to study at the Ecole Normale under other famous mathematicians such as Lagrange, Laplace, and Monge. By 1797, Fourier was an instructor and researcher at the College de France. In 1798, he became a scientific adviser to Napoleon's army during France's invasion of Egypt. Fourier did not return to Paris until 1801 when he resumed teaching. By 1817, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences. Five years later Fourier became the Secretary of the mathematics section at the Academy.
Fourier is best remembered for the Fourier Transform, which involves the Fourier Series, and for his theorem on the position of roots in an algebraic equation. The Fourier Transform makes it possible to take any periodic function of time and equate it into an equivalent infinite summation of sine waves and cosine waves.
Links:
http://www.nst.ing.tu-bs.de/schaukasten/fourier/en_idx.html
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/key/nucalc/fourier.html
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