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 834,137 page views. His biography is available in 112 different languages on Wikipedia. James Prescott Joule is the 10th most popular physicist (up from 14th in 2019), the 38th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 43rd in 2019) and the 4th most popular British 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

  • 830k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 85.04

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 112

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 17.04

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.54

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, James Prescott Joule ranks 10 out of 721. Before him are Stephen Hawking, Michael Faraday, Wilhelm Röntgen, Max Planck, Alessandro Volta, and Niels Bohr. After him are André-Marie Ampère, Ernest Rutherford, James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Hooke, Werner Heisenberg, and Evangelista Torricelli.

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Contemporaries

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

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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 38 out of 6,924. Before him are Margaret Thatcher (1925), David Hume (1711), John Maynard Keynes (1883), Mary II of England (1662), Daniel Defoe (1660), and Jane Austen (1775). After him are Bertrand Russell (1872), Anthony Hopkins (1937), James Clerk Maxwell (1831), Henry V of England (1386), Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900), and William Wallace (1270).

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Among PHYSICISTS In United Kingdom

Among physicists born in United Kingdom, James Prescott Joule ranks 4. Before him are Isaac Newton (1643), Stephen Hawking (1942), and Michael Faraday (1791). After him are James Clerk Maxwell (1831), Robert Hooke (1635), J. J. Thomson (1856), Paul Dirac (1902), William Gilbert (1544), James Chadwick (1891), William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824), and Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869).

British born Physicists

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