# Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille

Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille
Born22 April 1797
Died26 December 1869 (aged 72)
NationalityFrench
Alma materÉcole Polytechnique
Known forPoiseuille's law
Scientific career
Fieldsphysicist and physiologist

Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille[a] (French: [pwazœj]; 22 April 1797[2] – 26 December 1869) was a French physicist and physiologist.

Poiseuille was born in Paris, France, and he died there on 26 December 1869.

## Fluid flow

From 1815 to 1816 he studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris. He was trained in physics and mathematics. In 1828 he earned his D.Sc. degree with a dissertation entitled Recherches sur la force du coeur aortique. He was interested in the flow of human blood in narrow tubes.

In 1838 he experimentally derived, and in 1840 and 1846 formulated and published, Poiseuille's law (now commonly known as the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, crediting Gotthilf Hagen as well), which applies to laminar flow, that is, non-turbulent flow of liquids through pipes of uniform section, such as blood flow in capillaries and veins.

The equation in standard fluid dynamics notation is[3][4]

${\displaystyle \Delta P={\frac {8\mu LQ}{\pi r^{4}}},}$

or

${\displaystyle \Delta P={\frac {128\mu LQ}{\pi d^{4}}},}$

or

${\displaystyle \Delta P={\frac {32\mu Lv}{d^{2}}},}$

where:

${\displaystyle \Delta P}$ is the pressure loss,
${\displaystyle L}$ is the length of pipe,
${\displaystyle \mu }$ is the dynamic viscosity,
${\displaystyle Q}$ is the volumetric flow rate,
${\displaystyle r}$ is the radius,
${\displaystyle d}$ is the diameter,
${\displaystyle \pi }$ is the mathematical constant π,
${\displaystyle v}$ is the velocity.

The poise, the unit of viscosity in the CGS system, was named after him. Attempts to introduce "poiseuille" as the name of the SI unit Pa·s had little success.[citation needed]

## Notes

1. ^ Some sources (including editions of Encyclopædia Britannica[1]) give Poiseuille's full name as Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille. This appears to be a mistake, propagated from Larousse 1874, p. 1271

## References

1. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 926-.
2. ^ "Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille (1797-1869)". Auteur - Ressources de la Bibliothèque nationale de France (in French). BNF 10693841k. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
3. ^
4. ^