Google Doodle honours Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau on his 218th birthday
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Miscellaneous
- Published
24th Apr, 2020
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- Google Doodle honoured Belgian physicist Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau, inventor of the phenakistiscope, a device that led to the birth of cinema by creating the illusion of a moving image.
- Born in Brussels on October 14 in 1801, Plateau was the son of an artist who specialised in painting flowers. After studying law, Plateau became one of the best-known Belgian scientists of the nineteenth century, remembered for his study of physiological optics, particularly the effect of light and colour on the human retina.
- Plateau's doctoral dissertation detailed how images form on the retina, noting their exact duration, colour, and intensity. Based on these conclusions, he was able to create a stroboscopic device in 1832, fitted with two discs that rotated in opposite directions.
