John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh ( born November 12, 1842 in Langford Grove, Maldon, England, † June 30, 1919 in Terlins Place in Witham, England) was an English physicist. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904.
Life
In childhood Strutt was of feeble constitution, his attendance at Eton and Harrow were therefore short-lived. First sign of a certain mathematical talent he showed in the boarding school of the Reverend Warner, where he was prepared for the University of visit. In 1861 he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study mathematics.
After graduation he received from 1866 to 1871 a scholarship at Trinity College. In 1872 he had to leave the country because of a rheumatic attack, he traveled to Egypt and Greece. Upon his return a year later his father died and Strutt has traditionally had to take over the farming family, he gave in 1876 to his younger brother.
Now he could devote full again the natural sciences. In 1879, he was followed by James Clerk Maxwell as professor of experimental physics and director of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. 1887 to 1905 he was professor at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
From 1892 to 1901, he Strutt Lord Lieutenant of Essex. In the Royal Society, he was a member from 1873; this gave him the Royal Medal in 1882; 1905 to 1908 he was president of the Royal Society. 1890 appointed him the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and corresponding member of. His University, Cambridge University, he served as chancellor from 1908 to 1919. 1919 Strutt was also president of the Society for Psychical Research.
He married Evelyn Balfour in 1871, the sister of the future Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour. The couple had three sons, the eldest of whom, Robert John Strutt, also a physicist was. Strutt died in 1919.
Work
Strutt explored initially in the fields of optics and vibration theory, which he largely treated mathematically. Later he expanded his interests insomuch that he almost covering the entire field of physics: electricity, thermodynamics, wave theory and statistical physics.
Strutt prepared the work of Sir William Ramsay before in the field of noble gases. 1883 observed Strutt namely that of air obtained a greater density than nitrogen from nitrogen compounds recovered nitrogen. Then Ramsay experimented with atmospheric nitrogen and so was the noble gas argon. Strutt and Ramsay worked from 1884 to 1885 continue to cooperate on the characterization of the atmospheric gases.
Strutt explained the blue color of the sky based on the scattering of light by small particles ( Rayleigh scattering).
1895, the Barnard Medal he was awarded.
1904 Strutt was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for determining the density of the most important gases and for his discovery of argon.
Strutt developed in 1907, the duplex theory, which contributes significantly to the understanding of the process of natural hearing in humans.
Strutt Collected Papers were published in six volumes 1899-1920 by Cambridge University Press. His work contained therein liquid drops were Niels Bohr as inspiration for his published together with Archibald Wheeler theory of fission. His essays are characterized by soothing clarity and mathematical elegance, and set today for everyone interested in Physics an indispensable source dar.
The lunar crater Rayleigh is named after him.