Thomas Young
Polymath, physicist
Died when: 55 years 331 days (670 months)Star Sign: Gemini
Thomas Young FRS (13 June 1773 – 10 May 1829) was a British polymath who made notable contributions to the fields of vision, light, solid mechanics, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony, and Egyptology.
He was instrumental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, specifically the Rosetta Stone. Young has been described as "The Last Man Who Knew Everything".
His work influenced that of William Herschel, Hermann von Helmholtz, James Clerk Maxwell, and Albert Einstein. Young is credited with establishing the wave theory of light, in contrast to the particle theory of Isaac Newton.
Young's work was subsequently supported by the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel.
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