Who is the joule named after?

The joule is named after James Joule, an English physicist and brewer known for his research in thermodynamics and the establishment of the principle of conservation of energy. His experiments in the mid-19th century demonstrated the relationship between work and heat, which contributed significantly to the field of energy. The joule as a unit of energy reflects his contributions to understanding energy transformations and mechanical work. Naming the unit after him honors his pioneering work, aligning it with the advances in physics that relied on quantifying energy in a systematic way.