Biography of Thomas Young, Scientist

Thomas Young Photo

Thomas Young (1773 - 1829) is sometimes referred to as "the last person that knew everything." Since his time, it has become impossible for anyone to be well versed in every field of study, but Thomas may well have been. For example, by age 14 he is said to have been familiar with: Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Amharic.

He apparently studied everything including medicine, science, natural philosophy, material science, optics, physiology, the decoding of Eygpytian hieroglyphic, etc.

He is best known for Young's Double Slit Experiment where he displayed light's wavelike properties by noticing a wavelike interference pattern being generated when light was shined through two slits. He is also known for Young's modulus, a measure of a material's stiffness.

His other accomplishments include describing the function of the heart and arteries, the theory that color perception is due to three different color sensitive receptors in the eyes (a theory later proven by Hermann Helmholtz), describing astigmatism and other optical phenomena of the eye, and many others. He was also instrumental in translating the Eygptian text of the Rosetta Stone and helped in decoding the hieroglyphic alphabet.

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