Hippolyte Fizeau
Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (23 September 1819 – 18 September 1896) was a French physicist who, in 1849, measured the speed of light to within 5% accuracy. In 1851, he measured the speed of light in moving water in an experiment known as the Fizeau experiment.
Also recorded as Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau · Louis Armand Hippolyte Fizeau · A. H. L. Fizeau · Hippolyte Louis Fizeau
Hippolyte Fizeau

Charles Reutlinger, b.1816 · Académie des Sciences, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Accession number: SIL14-F002-10 · Public domain
- Birth Name
- Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau
- Born
- 23 September 1819
- Birthplace
- Paris, Kingdom of France
- Died
- 18 September 1896
- Place of death
- Venteuil, French Third Republic
- Known for
- * Discovering the Doppler redshift (1848)
- Awards
- Rumford Medal (1866) ForMemRS (1875) Scientists
- Full name
- Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau.
- Nationality
- Belgium.
- Occupation
- physicist, astronomer, engineer, daguerreotypist and photographer.
- Fields
- physics.
- Education
- Collège Stanislas de Paris, Paris Medical Faculty and Collège de France.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (23 September 1819 – 18 September 1896) was a French physicist who, in 1849, measured the speed of light to within 5% accuracy. In 1851, he measured the speed of light in moving water in an experiment known as the Fizeau experiment.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Hippolyte Fizeau. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q216814 · wikipedia · Hippolyte Fizeau
In this article
Biography
Biography
Hippolyte Fizeau studied at Collège Stanislas de Paris, Paris Medical Faculty and Collège de France. Training under Henri Victor Regnault and François Arago is recorded. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is physics. Residence is recorded at Paris. Positions recorded include president of the French Academy of Sciences. Works named in the authority record are Doppler effect, Fizeau experiment, Fizeau interferometer and Fizeau–Foucault apparatus. Work by Hippolyte Fizeau is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Photography Collection. Distinctions recorded are Rumford Medal, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 72 names on the Eiffel Tower and Knight of the Legion of Honour.

Photograph of physicist Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau
Eugène Pirou (1841-1909) · This file comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b84497649

Creator/Photographer: Charles Reutlinger, b.1816
Smithsonian Institution
Key facts
Key facts
• Honorific Suffix — ForMemRS • Birth Name — Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau • Born — 23 September 1819 • Birthplace — Paris, Kingdom of France • Died — 18 September 1896 • Place of death — Venteuil, French Third Republic • Fields — Physics • Known for — * Discovering the Doppler redshift (1848) • Measuring the speed of light in air (1848–1849) • Performing the Fizeau experiment (1851) • Improving the induction coil (1853) • Awards — Rumford Medal (1866) ForMemRS (1875) Scientists
Biography
Biography
Fizeau was born in Paris to Louis and Beatrice Fizeau. He married into the de Jussieu botanical family. His earliest work was concerned with improvements in photographic processes. Following suggestions by François Arago, Léon Foucault and Fizeau collaborated in a series of investigations on the interference of light and heat. In 1848, he predicted the redshifting of electromagnetic waves. In 1849, Fizeau calculated a value for the speed of light to a better precision than the previous value determined by Ole Rømer in 1676. He used a beam of light reflected from a mirror 8633 meters away. The beam passed through the gaps between the teeth of a rapidly rotating wheel with 720 teeth. The speed of the wheel was increased until, at 12.6 rotations per second, the returning light hit the next tooth and could not be seen. At 25.2 rotations per second, the light was again visible. This gives a result of, which is within 5% of the correct value (299,792,458 meters per second). (See Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light in air.) Fizeau made the first suggestion in 1864 that the "speed of a light wave be used as a length standard". In 1850 he measured the relative speeds of light in air and water using a rotating mirror; however, Foucault independently achieved the same result seven weeks earlier. Fizeau was involved in the discovery of the Doppler effect, which is known in French as the Doppler–Fizeau effect. In 1853, Fizeau described the use of a capacitor (sometimes termed a "condenser") as a means to increase the efficiency of the induction coil. Later, he studied the thermal expansion of solids and applied the phenomenon of interference of light to the measurement of the dilatations of crystals. He became a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1860 and a member of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1878. He died in France at Venteuil on 18 September 1896. "Fizeau" is one of the 72 names inscribed on the frieze below the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, all of whom were French scientists, mathematicians, engineers, or industrialists from the hundred years before the tower's public opening for the 1889 World's Fair. Of the 72, Fizeau is the only one who was still alive when the tower was opened. The crater Fizeau on the far side of the Moon is named after him.
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
Hippolyte Fizeau was recorded at birth as Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau. Fizeau, Hippolyte Louis Fizeau and Armand-Hippolyte-Louis Fizeau. His recorded language was French. Other recorded relations include Adrien-Henri de Jussieu.
Career and activity
Career and activity
Hippolyte Fizeau worked in physics. Recorded position is president of the French Academy of Sciences. He belonged to Royal Society, Société Philomathique de Paris, French Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He worked at Paris.
Identity
Identity
Hippolyte Fizeau is recorded with the occupation daguerreotypist. Recorded as having received Rumford Medal, Foreign Member of the Royal Society and 72 names on the Eiffel Tower. Formation and teaching. Fizeau studied at Collège Stanislas de Paris, Paris Medical Faculty and Collège de France. He trained under Henri Victor Regnault and François Arago.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1819
Hippolyte Fizeau was born on 23 September 1819.
1896
Hippolyte Fizeau died at château de Venteuil.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Paris.
Residences
château de Venteuil.
Death place
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Hippolyte Fizeau received Rumford Medal, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, 72 names on the Eiffel Tower and Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q216814: Hippolyte Fizeau
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Hippolyte Fizeau”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Hockey, Thomas. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. 2009. 978-0-387-31022-0.
- 2.Solbert. Hippolyte-Louis Fizeau (1819–1896). Image, Journal of Photography of George Eastman House. International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House Inc. 1. 5. 3–4. May 1952.
- 3.Fizeau, Armand Hippolyte Louis. 10. 452.
- 4.Hellemans, Alexander. The Timetables of Science. Simon and Schuster. 317. 1988. 0-671-62130-0.
- 5.Fizeau's experiment: The original paper. Skulls in the Stars. 1 April 2008.
- 6.Poincaré, H. Maxwell's Theory and Wireless Telegraphy: Part 1. McGraw Publishing Co. 52–55. 1904.
- 7.Physics part 1 Resnick/Halliday p. 5.
- 8.Tobin, William John. The Life and Science of Leon Foucault: The Man Who Proved the Earth Rotates. Cambridge University Press. 2003. 9780521808552.
- 9.Houdas, Y. Doppler, Buys-Ballot, Fizeau. Historical note on the discovery of the Doppler's effect. Annales de cardiologie et d'angéiologie. 40. 4. 209–13. April 1991.
- 10.Lemoine, Bertrand. Whose are the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower and why are they there. 2020-06-18.
- 11.United States Geological Survey. Fizeau on Moon. Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Born at
1- ParisPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Himanshu KhagtaPhotographer
- Hinnerk ScheperPhotographer
- Hippolyte ArnouxPhotographer
- Hippolyte BayardPhotographer
- Hippolyte JouvinPhotographer
- Hippolyte SebronPhotographer
- Hiralal SenPhotographer
- Hiro MuramotoPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Hippolyte Fizeau?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.