Carnot Nicolas Léonard Sadi

Car·not

(kär-nō′), Nicolas Léonard Sadi 1796-1832.

French physicist and engineer who founded the science of thermodynamics. He was the first to analyze the working cycle and efficiency of the steam engine according to scientific principles. Through his experiments Carnot developed what would become the second law of thermodynamics and laid the foundation for work by Kelvin, Joule, and others.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.