Editing Augustin-Jean Fresnel (section)

=== Education ===

The Fresnel brothers were initially home-schooled by their mother. The sickly Augustin was considered the slow one, not inclined to memorization;<ref>Levitt, 2013, pp.&nbsp;24–25; Buchwald, 1989, p.&nbsp;111.</ref> but the popular story that he hardly began to read until the age of eight is disputed.<ref>That age was given by Arago in his elegy (Arago, 1857, p.&nbsp;402) and widely propagated (''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1911; Buchwald, 1989, p.&nbsp;111; Levitt, 2013, p.&nbsp;24; etc.). But the reprint of the elegy at the end of Fresnel's collected works bears a footnote, presumably by Léonor Fresnel, saying that "eight" should be "five or six", and regretting "the haste with which we had to collect the notes that were belatedly requested for the biographical part of this speech" (Fresnel, 1866–70, vol.&nbsp;3, p.&nbsp;477n). Silliman (1967, p.&nbsp;9n) accepts the correction.</ref> At the age of nine or ten he was undistinguished except for his ability to turn tree-branches into toy bows and guns that worked far too well, earning himself the title ''l'homme de génie'' (the man of genius) from his accomplices, and a united crackdown from their elders.<ref>Levitt, 2013, p.&nbsp;25; Arago, 1857, p.&nbsp;402; Boutry, 1948, pp.&nbsp;590–591.</ref>

In 1801, Augustin was sent to the ''École Centrale'' at [[Caen]], as company for Louis. But Augustin lifted his performance: in late 1804 he was accepted into the École Polytechnique, being placed 17th in the entrance examination.<ref>Levitt, 2013, pp.&nbsp;25–26; Silliman, 1967, pp.&nbsp;9–11.</ref>{{r|chisholm-1911-fresnel}} As the detailed records of the École Polytechnique begin in 1808, we know little of Augustin's time there, except that he made few if any friends and—in spite of continuing poor health—excelled in drawing and geometry:<ref>Boutry, 1948, p.&nbsp;592.</ref> in his first year he took a prize for his solution to a geometry problem posed by [[Adrien-Marie Legendre]].<ref>Silliman, 1967, p.&nbsp;14; Arago, 1857, p.&nbsp;403. Fresnel's solution was printed in the ''Correspondance sur l'École polytechnique'', No.&nbsp;4 (June–July 1805), [https://books.google.com/books?id=IbU-AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA78 pp.&nbsp;78–80], and reprinted in Fresnel, 1866–70, vol.&nbsp;2, pp.&nbsp;681–684. Boutry (1948, p.&nbsp;591) takes this story as referring to the entrance examination.</ref> Graduating in 1806, he then enrolled at the [[École des ponts ParisTech|École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées]] (National School of Bridges and Roads, also known as "ENPC" or "École des Ponts"), from which he graduated in 1809, entering the service of the [[Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests|Corps des Ponts et Chaussées]] as an ''ingénieur ordinaire aspirant'' (ordinary engineer in training). Directly or indirectly, he was to remain in the employment of the "Corps des Ponts" for the rest of his life.<ref>Levitt, 2013, pp.&nbsp;26–27; Silliman, 2008, p.&nbsp;166; Boutry, 1948, pp.&nbsp;592,{{tsp}}601.</ref>