He is best known for his work on the supplementary forces that are detected in a rotating frame of reference, leading to the Coriolis effect.

In 1808 he sat the entrance exam and was placed second of all the students entering that year, and in 1816, he became a tutor at the École Polytechnique, where he did experiments on friction and hydraulics.

Three years later came the paper that would make his name famous, Sur les équations du mouvement relatif des systèmes de corps (On the equations of relative motion of a system of bodies).

[5] In 1835, he published a mathematical work on collisions of spheres: Théorie Mathématique des Effets du Jeu de Billard, considered a classic on the subject.

[8] In 1838, he succeeded Dulong as Directeur des études (director of studies) in the École Polytechnique.