Claude-Louis Navier
From AoPSWiki
Claude-Louis Navier (10 February 1785 in Dijon – 21 August 1836 in Paris) born Claude Louis Marie Henri Navier, was a French engineer and physicist who specialized in mechanics.
The Navier-Stokes equations are named after him and George Gabriel Stokes.
Contributions
Navier formulated the general theory of elasticity in a mathematically usable form (1821), making it available to the field of construction with sufficient accuracy for the first time. In 1819 he succeeded in determining the zero line of mechanical stress, finally correcting Galileo Galilei's incorrect results, and in 1826 he established the elastic modulus as a property of materials independent of the second moment of area. Navier is therefore often considered to be the founder of modern structural analysis.
His major contribution however remains the [Navier-Stokes equations] (1822), central to fluid mechanics.
