PHYSICIST

James Prescott Joule

1818 - 1889

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James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 – 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, mathematician and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). This led to the law of conservation of energy, which in turn led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of James Prescott Joule has received more than 946,536 page views. His biography is available in 113 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 112 in 2019). James Prescott Joule is the 12th most popular physicist (down from 10th in 2019), the 37th most popular biography from United Kingdom and the 5th most popular Physicist.

James Prescott Joule was most famous for his work in thermodynamics. He was the first to calculate the mechanical equivalent of heat, which is the amount of work that can be done by a certain amount of heat.

Memorability Metrics

  • 950k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 80.86

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 113

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 19.42

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.30

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, James Prescott Joule ranks 12 out of 717. Before him are Wilhelm Röntgen, Alessandro Volta, Max Planck, Robert Hooke, Pierre Curie, and Hans Christian Ørsted. After him are André-Marie Ampère, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, James Clerk Maxwell, Evangelista Torricelli, and Georg Ohm.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1818, James Prescott Joule ranks 2. Before him is Karl Marx. After him are Alexander II of Russia, Emily Brontë, Ignaz Semmelweis, Ivan Turgenev, Christian IX of Denmark, Charles Gounod, Jacob Burckhardt, Lewis H. Morgan, Marius Petipa, and Rudolf von Jhering. Among people deceased in 1889, James Prescott Joule ranks 1. After him are Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, Antonio Meucci, Baroness Mary Vetsera, Jefferson Davis, Alexandre Cabanel, Father Damien, Luís I of Portugal, Mihai Eminescu, Michel Eugène Chevreul, Nikolay Chernyshevsky, and Charles III, Prince of Monaco.

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Others Deceased in 1889

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, James Prescott Joule ranks 37 out of 7,765. Before him are Robert Hooke (1635), Lord Byron (1788), Jane Austen (1775), John Dalton (1766), David Hume (1711), and Mary II of England (1662). After him are Thomas More (1478), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859), Anthony Hopkins (1937), John Lennon (1940), Edward Jenner (1749), and James Clerk Maxwell (1831).

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Among PHYSICISTS In United Kingdom

Among physicists born in United Kingdom, James Prescott Joule ranks 5. Before him are Isaac Newton (1643), Stephen Hawking (1942), Michael Faraday (1791), and Robert Hooke (1635). After him are James Clerk Maxwell (1831), William Gilbert (1544), Paul Dirac (1902), J. J. Thomson (1856), Thomas Young (1773), James Chadwick (1891), and Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869).

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