View source for Biography:François Arago

{{Infobox officeholder
| name              = François Arago
| honorific-suffix  = GOLH
| image             = François Arago by Carl von Steuben.jpg
| office            = President of the Executive Commission<br>Co-Prince of Andorra
| term_start        = 9 May 1848
| term_end          = 28 June 1848
| predecessor       = Jacques-Charles Dupont<br>{{small|as Chairman of the Provisional Government of France}}
| successor         = Louis-Eugène Cavaignac<br>{{small|as Chief of the Executive Power}}
| office1           = Minister of War
| primeminister1    = Jacques-Charles Dupont
| term_start1       = 5 April 1848
| term_end1         = 11 May 1848
| predecessor1      = Louis-Eugène Cavaignac
| successor1        = Adolphe Charras
| office2           = Minister of the Navy
| primeminister2    = Jacques-Charles Dupont
| term_start2       = 24 February 1848
| term_end2         = 4 May 1848
| predecessor2      = Louis Napoléon Lannes
| successor2        = Joseph Grégoire Casy
| office3           = Member of the Constituent Assembly<br>for Seine
| term_start3       = 4 May 1848
| term_end3         = 26 May 1849
| predecessor3      = constituency created
| successor3        = [[Biography:Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais|Felicité Robert de Lamennais]]
| constituency3     = [[Place:Paris|Paris]]
| office4           = Member of the Chamber of Deputies<br>for Pyrénées-Orientales
| term_start4       = 6 July 1831
| term_end4         = 24 February 1848
| predecessor4      = Hippolyte Durand
| successor4        = Emmanuel Arago
| constituency4     = Perpignan
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1786|2|26}}
| birth_place       = Estagel, Roussillon, [[History:Kingdom of France|Kingdom of France]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1853|10|2|1786|2|26}}
| death_place       = [[Place:Paris|Paris]], Seine, French Empire
| resting_place     = Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
| party             = Moderate Republican
| spouse            = {{marriage|Lucie Carrier-Besombes|1811|1829|end=d.}}
| children          = Emmanuel Arago<br>Alfred<br>Gabriel
| alma_mater        = École Polytechnique
| profession        = [[Astronomy:Astronomer|Astronomer]], [[Physicist|physicist]], [[Biography:Mathematician|mathematician]]
| module            = {{Infobox scientist|embed=yes
| fields            = [[Astronomy:Astronomy|Astronomy]], [[Mathematics|mathematics]], [[Physics:Physics|physics]]
| workplaces        = [[Organization:Bureau des Longitudes|Bureau des Longitudes]], French Academy of Sciences, Paris Observatory
| patrons           = [[Biography:Siméon Denis Poisson|Siméon Denis Poisson]]<br>[[Biography:Pierre-Simon Laplace|Pierre-Simon Laplace]]
| known_for         = Rotary polarization<br>[[Physics:Polarizer|Polarizer]]<br>Eddy currents<br>[[Physics:Fresnel–Arago laws|Fresnel–Arago laws]]<br>[[Physics:Arago spot|Arago spot]]<br>[[Physics:Arago's rotations|Arago's rotations]]
| influences        = {{hlist|[[Biography:Gaspard Monge|Gaspard Monge]]|[[Biography:Joseph-Louis Lagrange|Joseph-Louis Lagrange]]|Alexis Bouvard|[[Biography:Pierre-Simon Laplace|Pierre-Simon Laplace]]}}
| influenced        = {{hlist|[[Biography:Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot|Nicolas Sadi Carnot]]|[[Biography:Michael Faraday|Michael Faraday]]|[[Biography:Augustin-Jean Fresnel|Augustin-Jean Fresnel]]|[[Biography:Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]]|[[Biography:Étienne-Louis Malus|Étienne-Louis Malus]]}}
| awards            = [[Physics:Copley Medal|Copley Medal]]
| signature         = Signature de François Arago.svg
}}
}}
''' Dominique François Jean Arago''' ({{lang-ca|Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó}}), known simply as '''François Arago''' ({{IPA-fr|fʁɑ̃swa aʁaɡo|lang}}; Catalan: ''Francesc Aragó'', {{IPA-ca|fɾənˈsɛsk əɾəˈɣo|IPA}}; 26 February 1786{{snd}}2 October 1853), was a French [[Biography:Mathematician|mathematician]], [[Physicist|physicist]], [[Astronomy:Astronomer|astronomer]], freemason,<ref>''Victor SCHOELCHER Républicain et franc-maçon'', Anne GIROLLET, ed. Maçonnique Française, p. 26</ref> supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries<ref>Dictionnaire universel de la Franc-Maçonnerie By Monique Cara, Jean-Marc Cara, Marc Jode</ref> and politician.

==Early life and work==
Arago was born at Estagel, a small village of 3,000<ref>{{cite journal|title=Francois Arago|journal=The Canadian Journal|year=1854|volume=2|page=159|url=https://archive.org/stream/canadianjournal14goog#page/n171/mode/1up|access-date=3 May 2013}}</ref> near Perpignan, in the ''{{lang|fr|département}}'' of Pyrénées-Orientales, France, where his father held the position of Treasurer of the Mint.
His parents were François Bonaventure Arago (1754–1814) and Marie Arago (1755–1845).

Arago was the eldest of four brothers. Jean (1788–1836) emigrated to North America and became a general in the Mexican army. Jacques Étienne Victor (1799–1855) took part in Louis de Freycinet's exploring voyage in the ''Uranie'' from 1817 to 1821, and on his return to France devoted himself to his journalism and the drama. The fourth brother, Étienne Vincent (1802–1892), is said to have collaborated with Honoré de Balzac in ''The Heiress of Birague'', and from 1822 to 1847 wrote a great number of light dramatic pieces, mostly in collaboration.<ref name="eb">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Arago, Dominique François Jean|volume=2|pages=312–313}}</ref>

Showing decided military tastes, François Arago was sent to the municipal college of Perpignan, where he began to study [[Mathematics|mathematics]] in preparation for the entrance examination of the École Polytechnique. Within two years and a half he had mastered all the subjects prescribed for examination, and a great deal more, and, on going up for examination at Toulouse, he astounded his examiner by his knowledge of [[Biography:Joseph-Louis Lagrange|J. L. Lagrange]].<ref name="eb" />

Towards the close of 1803, Arago entered the École Polytechnique, Paris, but apparently found the professors there incapable of imparting knowledge or maintaining discipline. The [[Engineering:Artillery|artillery]] service was his ambition, and in 1804, through the advice and recommendation of Siméon Poisson, he received the appointment of secretary to the Paris Observatory. 
He now became acquainted with [[Biography:Pierre-Simon Laplace|Pierre-Simon Laplace]], and through his influence was commissioned, with [[Biography:Jean-Baptiste Biot|Jean-Baptiste Biot]], to complete the [[Earth:Meridian arc|meridian arc]] measurements which had been begun by [[Biography:Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre|J. B. J. Delambre]], and interrupted since the death of P. F. A. Méchain in 1804 (the [[Earth:Meridian arc of Delambre and Méchain|meridian arc of Delambre and Méchain]]). 
Arago and Biot left Paris in 1806 and began operations along the mountains of Spain.
Biot returned to Paris after they had determined the latitude of Formentera, the southernmost point to which they were to carry the survey.<ref name="eb" /> 
Arago continued the work until 1809, his purpose being to measure a meridian [[Arc (geometry)|arc]] in order to determine the exact length of a metre.

After Biot's departure, the political ferment caused by the entrance of the French into Spain extended to the Balearic Islands, and the population suspected Arago's movements and his lighting of fires on the top of Mount Galatzó ([[Social:Catalan language|Catalan]]: Mola de l'Esclop) as the activities of a spy for the invading army. Their reaction was such that he was obliged to give himself up for imprisonment in the fortress of Bellver in June 1808. On 28 July he escaped from the island in a fishing-boat, and after an adventurous voyage he reached [[Place:Algiers|Algiers]] on 3 August. From there he obtained a passage in a vessel bound for Marseille, but on 16 August, just as the vessel was nearing Marseille, it fell into the hands of a Spanish corsair. With the rest the crew, Arago was taken to Roses, and imprisoned first in a windmill, and afterwards in a fortress, until the town fell into the hands of the French, when the prisoners were transferred to Palamos.<ref name="eb" />

After three months' imprisonment, Arago and the others were released on the demand of the dey of Algiers, and again set sail for Marseille on 28 November, but then within sight of their port they were driven back by a northerly wind to Bougie on the coast of Africa. Transport to Algiers by sea from this place would have occasioned a weary delay of three months; Arago, therefore, set out over land, guided by a Muslim priest, and reached it on Christmas Day. After six months in Algiers he once again, on 21 June 1809, set sail for Marseille, where he had to undergo a monotonous and inhospitable quarantine in the lazaretto, before his difficulties were over. The first letter he received, while in the lazaretto, was from [[Biography:Alexander von Humboldt|Alexander von Humboldt]]; and this was the origin of a connection which, in Arago's words, "lasted over forty years without a single cloud ever having troubled it."<ref name="eb" />

==Scientific studies==
Arago had succeeded in preserving the records of his survey; and his first act on his return home was to deposit them in the [[Organization:Bureau des Longitudes|Bureau des Longitudes]] at Paris. As a reward for his adventurous conduct in the cause of science, he was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences, at the remarkably early age of twenty-three, and before the close of 1809 he was chosen by the council of the École Polytechnique to succeed [[Biography:Gaspard Monge|Gaspard Monge]] in the chair of analytical geometry. At the same time he was named by the emperor one of the astronomers of the Paris Observatory, which was accordingly his residence till his death. It was in this capacity that he delivered his remarkably successful series of popular lectures in astronomy, which were continued from 1812 to 1845.<ref name="eb" />

In 1818 or 1819 he proceeded along with Biot to execute [[Geodesy|geodetic]] operations on the coasts of France, England and Scotland. They measured the length of the [[Seconds pendulum|seconds pendulum]] at Leith, Scotland, and in the Shetland Islands, the results of the observations being published in 1821, along with those made in Spain. Arago was elected a member of the Bureau des Longitudes immediately afterwards, and contributed to each of its Annuals, for about twenty-two years, important scientific notices on astronomy and [[Physics:Meteorology|meteorology]] and occasionally on [[Engineering:Civil engineering|civil engineering]], as well as interesting memoirs of members of the Academy.<ref name="eb" />

Arago's earliest physical researches were on the [[Physics:Pressure|pressure]] of [[Physics:Steam|steam]] at different temperatures, and the [[Physics:Velocity|velocity]] of sound, 1818 to 1822. His [[Physics:Magnet|magnet]]ic observations mostly took place from 1823 to 1826. He discovered rotatory magnetism, what has been called [[Physics:Arago's rotations|Arago's rotations]], and the fact that most bodies could be magnetized; these discoveries were completed and explained by [[Biography:Michael Faraday|Michael Faraday]].
[[File:Babbage, Charles – Account of the repetition of M. Arago's experiments on the magnetism manifested by various substances during the act of rotation, 1825 – BEIC 722599.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Charles Babbage, ''Account of the repetition of M. Arago's experiments on the magnetism manifested by various substances during the act of rotation'', 1825]]

Arago warmly supported [[Biography:Augustin-Jean Fresnel|Augustin-Jean Fresnel]]'s [[Physics:Optics|optical]] theories, helping to confirm Fresnel's wave theory of light by observing what is now known as [[Physics:Arago spot|the spot of Arago]]. The two philosophers conducted together those experiments on the [[Physics:Polarization (waves)|polarization]] of light which led to the inference that the [[Oscillation|vibration]]s of the luminiferous ether were transverse to the direction of [[Physics:Motion|motion]], and that polarization consisted of a resolution of [[Rectilinear propagation|rectilinear propagation]] into components at right angles to each other. The subsequent invention of the polariscope and discovery of Rotary polarization are due to Arago. He invented the first polarization filter in 1812.<ref>{{The Timetables of Science|pages=261}}</ref> He was the first to perform a polarimetric observation of a comet when he discovered polarized light from the tail of the [[Astronomy:Great Comet of 1819|Great Comet of 1819]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kolokolova|first1=Ludmilla|title=Polarimetry of Stars and Planetary Systems|year=2015|publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}|isbn=978-1-107-04390-9|page=380|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFqtCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA380}}</ref>

The general idea of the experimental determination of the velocity of light in the manner subsequently effected by [[Biography:Hippolyte Fizeau|Hippolyte Fizeau]] and [[Biography:Léon Foucault|Léon Foucault]] was suggested by Arago in 1838, but his failing eyesight prevented his arranging the details or making the experiments.

[[File:François Arago par Ary Scheffer.jpg|thumb|right|200px|François Arago]]

Arago's fame as an experimenter and discoverer rests mainly on his contributions to magnetism in the co-discovery with [[Biography:Léon Foucault|Léon Foucault]] of [[Physics:Eddy current|eddy current]]s, and still more to [[Physics:Optics|optics]]. He showed that a magnetic needle, made to oscillate over nonferrous surfaces, such as water, glass, copper, etc., falls more rapidly in the extent of its oscillations according as it is more or less approached to the surface. This discovery, which earned him the [[Physics:Copley Medal|Copley Medal]] of the Royal Society in 1825, was followed by another, that a rotating plate of copper tends to communicate its motion to a magnetic needle suspended over it, which he called "magnetism of rotation"<ref>''Annales de chimie et de physique'' (1824), vol. 27, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r9U3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA363#v=onepage&q&f=false page 363]:  "M. Arago communique verbalement les résultats de quelques expériences qu'il a faites sur l'influence que les métaux et beaucoup d'autres substances exercent sur l'aiguille aimantée, et qui a pour effet de diminuer rapidement l'amplitude des oscillations sans altérer sensiblement leur durée. Il promet, à ce sujet, un Mémoire détaillé." (Mr. Arago orally communicates the results of some experiments that he has conducted on the influence that metals and many other substances exert on a magnetic needle, which has the effect of rapidly reducing the amplitude of the oscillations without altering significantly their duration. He promises, on this subject, a detailed memoir.)</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Arago | year = 1826 | title = "Note concernant les Phénomènes magnétiques auxquels le mouvement donne naissance" (Note concerning magnetic phenomena that motion creates) | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Itg3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA213 | journal = Annales de chimie et de physique | volume = 32 | pages = 213–223 }}</ref><ref name=Babbage1825>{{cite journal| author=Babbage, C. and Herschel, J.W.F. |year=1825 |title=Account of the repetition of M. Arago's experiments on the magnetism manifested by various substances during the act of rotation |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |volume=115 |pages=467–496 |url=https://archive.org/details/philtrans03806447 |bibcode=1825RSPT..115..467B |doi=10.1098/rstl.1825.0023|doi-access=free }}</ref> but (after Faraday's explanation of 1832<ref>[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/20031#page/300/mode/1up Philosospical magazine 1840]</ref>{{rp|283}}) is now known as [[Physics:Eddy current|eddy current]].  Arago is also fairly entitled to be regarded as having proved the long-suspected connexion between the aurora borealis and the variations of the magnetic elements.<ref name="eb" /> In 1827 he was elected an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, when that institute became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851, he became foreign member.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00004595 |title=Dominique François Jean Arago (1786 - 1853) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=7 May 2020}}</ref> In 1828, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

In optics, Arago not only made important optical discoveries on his own, but is credited with stimulating the genius of Jean-Augustin Fresnel, with whose history, as well as that of [[Biography:Étienne-Louis Malus|Étienne-Louis Malus]] and [[Biography:Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young]], this part of his life is closely interwoven.

Shortly after the beginning of the 19th century the labours of at least three philosophers were shaping the doctrine of the undulatory, or wave, theory of light. Fresnel's arguments in favour of that theory found little favour with Laplace, Poisson and Biot, the champions of the emission theory; but they were ardently espoused by Humboldt and by Arago, who had been appointed by the Academy to report on the paper.<ref name="eb" /> This was the foundation of an intimate friendship between Arago and Fresnel, and of a determination to carry on together further fundamental laws of the polarization of light known by their means. As a result of this work, Arago constructed a polariscope, which he used for some interesting observations on the polarization of the light of the sky. He also discovered the power of rotatory polarization exhibited by [[Chemistry:Quartz|quartz]].<ref>Arago (1811) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucm.5326746608;view=1up;seq=103 "Mémoire sur une modification remarquable qu'éprouvent les rayons lumineux dans leur passage à travers certains corps diaphanes et sur quelques autres nouveaux phénomènes d'optique"] (Memoir on a remarkable modification that light rays experience during their passage through certain translucent substances and on some other new optical phenomena), ''Mémoires de la classe des sciences mathématiques et physiques de l'Institut Impérial de France'', 1st part : 93–134.</ref>

Among Arago's many contributions to the support of the undulatory hypothesis, comes the ''experimentum crucis'' which he proposed to carry out for measuring directly the velocity of light in air and in water and glass. On the emission theory the velocity should be accelerated by an increase of density in the medium; on the wave theory, it should be retarded. In 1838 he communicated to the Academy the details of his apparatus, which utilized the relaying mirrors employed by [[Biography:Charles Wheatstone|Charles Wheatstone]] in 1835 for measuring the velocity of the electric discharge; but owing to the great care required in the carrying out of the project, and to the interruption to his labours caused by the revolution of 1848, it was the spring of 1850 before he was ready to put his idea to the test; and then his eyesight suddenly gave way. Before his death, however, the retardation of light in denser media was demonstrated by the experiments of H. L. Fizeau and B. L. Foucault, which, with improvements in detail, were based on the plan proposed by him.<ref name="eb" />

==Politics and legacy==
[[File:Arago medallion Paris.jpg|thumb|right|250px|One of the 135 Arago medallions set along the Paris Meridian for {{convert|9.2|km|0|abbr=on}}, in memorial to Arago and his work on the meridian and his measurements of the Earth.]]

In 1830, Arago, who always professed liberal opinions of the [[Philosophy:Republicanism|republican]] type, was elected a member of the chamber of deputies for the Pyrénées-Orientales ''département'', and he employed his talents of eloquence and scientific knowledge in all questions connected with public education, the rewards of inventors, and the encouragement of the mechanical and practical sciences. Many of the most creditable national enterprises, dating from this period, are due to his advocacy – such as the reward to [[Biography:Louis Daguerre|Louis Daguerre]] for the invention of photography, the grant for the publication of the works of Fermat and [[Biography:Pierre-Simon Laplace|Laplace]], the acquisition of the museum of Cluny, the development of railways and electric telegraphs, the improvement of the reneile. In 1839, Arago reported the invention of photography to stunned listeners of a joint meeting of the academies of Arts and Sciences.

In 1830, Arago also was appointed director of the Observatory, and as a member of the chamber of deputies he was able to obtain grants of money for rebuilding it in part, and for the addition of magnificent instruments. In the same year, too, he was chosen perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences, the place of [[Biography:Joseph Fourier|Joseph Fourier]]. Arago threw himself into its service, and by his faculty of making friends he gained at once for it and for himself a worldwide reputation. As perpetual secretary it was his duty to pronounce historical eulogies on deceased members; and for this duty his rapidity and facility of thought, and his happy piquancy of style, and his extensive knowledge peculiarly adapted him. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1832.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=22 April 2011}}</ref>

In 1834, Arago again visited Scotland, to attend the meeting of the British Association at [[Place:Edinburgh|Edinburgh]]. From this time till 1848 he led a life of comparative quiet – although he continued to work within the Academy and the Observatory to produce a multitude of contributions to all departments of physical science – but on the fall of Louis-Philippe he left his laboratory to join the Provisional Government (24 February 1848). He was entrusted with two important functions, that had never before been given to one person, viz. the ministry of marine and colonies (24 February 1848{{snd}}11 May 1848) and ministry of war (5 April 1848{{snd}}11 May 1848); in the former capacity he improved rations in the navy and abolished flogging. He also abolished political oaths of all kinds and, against an array of moneyed interests, succeeded in procuring the abolition of slavery in the French colonies.

On 10 May 1848, Arago was elected a member of the Executive Power Commission, a governing body of the French Republic. He was made President of the Executive Power Commission (11 May 1848) and served in this capacity as provisional head of state until 24 June 1848, when collective resignation of the commission was submitted to the National Constituent Assembly. At the beginning of May 1852, when the government of Louis Napoleon required an oath of allegiance from all its functionaries, Arago peremptorily refused, and sent in his resignation of his post as astronomer at the Bureau des Longitudes. This, however, the prince president declined to accept, and made "an exception in favour of a savant whose works had thrown lustre on France, and whose existence the government would regret to embitter."

Cape Gregory in Oregon was named by Captain Cook on 12 March 1778 after Saint Gregory, the saint of that day; it was renamed Cape Arago after François Arago.<ref name=OGN>{{cite ogn|7th|page=159}}</ref>

== Last years ==

Arago remained a consistent republican to the end, and after the coup d'état of 1852, though suffering first from [[Medicine:Diabetes|diabetes]], then from [[Medicine:Bright's disease|Bright's disease]], complicated by dropsy, he resigned his post as astronomer rather than take the oath of allegiance. Napoleon III gave directions that the old man should be in no way disturbed, and should be left free to say and do what he liked.  In the summer of 1853 Arago was advised by his physicians to try the effect of his native air, and he accordingly set out to the eastern Pyrenees, but this was ineffective and he died in Paris.  His grave is at the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Arago was an atheist.<ref>"The same Arago who spent his time criticizing unfounded myths now peddled them. Arago the atheist now spoke of souls." Theresa Levitt, The shadow of enlightenment: optical and political transparency in France, 1789–1848, page 105.</ref>

== Named after Arago ==
[[File:Francois-Arago-1882.jpg|thumb|The ''François Arago'' of 1882]]
* The study association for Applied Physics at the [[Organization:University of Twente|University of Twente]] was named after Arago.
* His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower.
* The outer main-belt asteroid [[Astronomy:1005 Arago|1005 Arago]], an [[Astronomy:Rings of Neptune#Inner rings|inner ring of Neptune]], the lunar crater ''[[Astronomy:Arago (lunar crater)|Arago]]'' as well as the Martian crater ''[[Astronomy:Arago (Martian crater)|Arago]]'' were also named in his honor.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Schmadel | first=Lutz D.
 | title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
 | publisher=Springer Science & Business Media
 | year=2012 | isbn=978-3642297182 | page=139
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoJ5nUyIzCsC }}</ref>
* Two French cable ships were named after him, the ''François Arago'' of 1882 and the ''Arago'' of 1914/1931.

== Honours ==
* {{flag|Kingdom of Belgium}}: Officer of the Order of Leopold.<ref>Almanach royal officiel de Belgique/1841 p118</ref>
* 1842 Prussian Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste |year=1975 |title=Die Mitglieder des Ordens. 1 1842-1881. |url=http://www.orden-pourlemerite.de/plm/mgvita/arago1786_vita.pdf |location=Berlin |publisher=Gebr. Mann Verlag |page=2 |isbn=3-7861-6189-5}}</ref>

== Publications ==
[[File:Père-Lachaise - Division 4 - Arago 01.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Arago at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris]]
Arago's works were published after his death under the direction J. A. Barral, in 17 vols., 8vo, 1854–1862; also separately his ''Astronomie populaire'', in 4 vols.; ''Notices biographiques'', in 3 vols.; ''Indices scientifiques'', in 5 vols.; ''Voyages scientifiques'', in 1 vol.; ''Grimoires scientifiques'', in 2 vols.; ''Mélanges'', in I vol.; and ''Tables analytiques et documents importants (with portrait)'', in 1 vol.

English translations of the following portions of Arago's works have appeared:
* ''Treatise on Comets'', by C. Gold, C.B. (London, 1833); also translated W. H. Smyth and Grant (London, 1861)
*''Euloge of James Watt'', by Muirhead (London, 1839); also translated, with notes, by Brougham
*''Popular Lectures on Astronomy'', by Walter Kelly and Rev. L. Tomlinson (London, 1854); also translated by Dr W. H. Smyth and Prof. R. Grant, 2 vols. (London, 1855)
*''Arago's Autography'', translated by the Rev. Baden Powell (London, 1855, 58)
*''Arago's Meteorological Essays'', with introduction by [[Biography:Alexander von Humboldt|Alexander von Humboldt]], translated under the supervision of Colonel [[Biography:Edward Sabine|Edward Sabine]] (London, 1855)
*''Arago's Biographies of Scientific Men'', translated by Smyth, Powell and Grant, 8vo (London, 1857)

==See also==

*The works of Antonin Mercié
*[[History of the metre]]
*[[Seconds pendulum]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite encyclopedia
| last         = Hahn
| first        = Roger
| title        = Arago, Dominique François Jean
| encyclopedia = Dictionary of Scientific Biography
| volume       = 1
| pages        = 200–203
| publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons
| location     = New York
| date         = 1970
| isbn         = 0-684-10114-9
 }}
*{{citation
| last      = Lequeux
| first     = James
| title     = François Arago, un savant généreux
| publisher=EDP-Sciences
| location  = Paris
| date      = 2008
| isbn      = 978-2-86883-999-2
 }}
* Walter Baily, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=85AOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA286&lpg=PA286 A Mode of producing Arago's Rotation]''. 28 June 1879. (Philosophical magazine: a journal of theoretical, experimental and applied physics. Taylor & Francis., 1879)

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Arago,+François | name=François Arago}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=François Arago |sopt=w}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2210}}
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0014//0000102.000.html Obituary] ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'', 1854, volume 14, page 102
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Arago}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060111124647/http://www.kunstgeografie.nl/dibbets.htm The 0 meridian in Paris] misused in ''The Da Vinci Code'' is in fact an art project by the Dutch artist Jan Dibbets (1941) made in 1987 as a tribute to the astronomer François Arago (1786–1853)
* [http://www.arago.utwente.nl/ S.V. Arago The study association for applied physics] (Dutch) at the [[Organization:University of Twente|University of Twente]] is named after François Arago.
* [http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/search/collection/p265101coll10/searchterm/Francois%20F.%20Arago/order/title Portrait of Francois F. Arago from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections]
* [https://bibnum.obspm.fr/exhibits/show/arago Virtual exhibition on Paris Observatory digital library]

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{{s-bef|before=Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure<br/>'''Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic}}
{{s-ttl|title=Head of State of France|years=6 May 1848{{snd}}28 June 1848<br/>Member of the Executive Commission along with:<br/>Louis-Antoine Garnier-Pagès<br/>Alphonse de Lamartine<br/>Alexandre Ledru-Rollin<br/>Pierre Marie (de Saint-Georges)}}
{{s-aft|after=Louis-Eugène Cavaignac<br/>'''President of the Council of Ministers}}
{{Succession box|title=Minister of War|before=Louis-Eugène Cavaignac|after=Jean-Baptiste-Adolphe Charras|years=5 April -11 May 1848}}
{{s-end}}
{{Copley Medallists 1801-1850}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arago, Francois}}
[[Category:French physicists]]

{{Sourceattribution|François Arago|1}}