Jules Antoine Lissajous

Jules Antoine Lissajous
Jules Antoine Lissajous, date and photographer unknown
Born	(1822-03-04)4 March 1822 Versailles, France
Died	24 June 1880(1880-06-24) (aged 58) Plombières-les-Dijon, France
Nationality	French
Known for	Lissajous figures
Scientific career
Fields	Physics

Jules Antoine Lissajous (French pronunciation: [ʒyl ɑ̃twan lisaʒu]; 4 March 1822 in Versailles – 24 June 1880 in Plombières-les-Dijon) was a French physicist, after whom Lissajous figures are named. Among other innovations, Lissajous invented the Lissajous apparatus, a device that creates the figures that bear his name. In it, a beam of light is bounced off a mirror attached to a vibrating tuning fork, and then reflected off a second mirror attached to a perpendicularly oriented vibrating tuning fork (usually of a different pitch, creating a specific harmonic interval), onto a wall, resulting in a Lissajous figure. This led to the invention of other apparatus such as the harmonograph.

• Lissajous curve
• Lissajous orbit

• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Jules Antoine Lissajous", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews