Jacques Charles

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Image:Jacques Alexandre César Charles.jpg

Jacques Alexandre César Charles (November 11, 1746 - April 7, 1823) was a French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist.

Charles was born in Beaugency-sur-Loire, and made the first flight in a hydrogen balloon on August 27, 1783; on December 1, 1783, with Ainé Roberts, he ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 meters). He invented several useful devices, including a hydrometer and reflecting goniometer, and improved the Gravesand heliostat and Fahrenheit's aerometer. In addition he confirmed Benjamin Franklin's electrical experiments.

Circa 1787 he discovered Charles' Law, which states that under constant pressure, a gas' volume is proportional to its temperature. The formula he created was V1/T1=V2/T2. His discovery anticipated Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac's published law of the expansion of gases with heat (1802).

Charles was elected to the Institut Royal de France, Académie des sciences, in 1793, and subsequently became professor of physics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. He died in Paris on April 7, 1823.de:Jacques Charles fr:Jacques Alexandre César Charles ja:ジャック・シャルル pl:Jacques Alexandre Charles pt:Jacques Charles sv:Jacques Charles