James Prescott Joule, English Physicist

James Prescott Joule (1818-1889) was an English physicist and brewer. He studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work. This led to the theory of conservation of energy, which led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him. He worked with Lord Kelvin to develop the absolute scale of temperature, made observations on magnetostriction, and found the relationship between the current through resistance and the heat dissipated, now called Joule's law

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1818 Absolute Brewer Conservation Joule Observed Prescott Studied Temperature Theorist Theory Thermodynamics

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