Loránd Eötvös

Loránd Eötvös [ lora ː nd øtvøʃ ] ( born July 27, 1848 in Buda, † April 8, 1919 in Budapest) was a Hungarian physicist and geophysicist. He was internationally known as (Baron ) Roland Eötvös (or Roland Eötvös ).

His most significant research concerns the Kapillarphysik, gravity and geomagnetism. In 1950, the Budapest University was named after him.

Life and research

Loránd Eötvös, son of the writer and statesman József Eötvös, studied law in Budapest, but soon switched to physics and completed a study abroad in Heidelberg - Kirchhoff, Helmholtz and Bunsen - and in Königsberg. After his habilitation in 1871 he became professor of physics at the present Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest and played a leading role for nearly half a century in the Hungarian science.

He constructed around 1906 a special torsion balance ( which was previously developed by John Michell, Charles- Augustin de Coulomb and Henry Cavendish ) for measuring small spatial gravity changes. These gravity gradients were used in the sequence for geophysical exploration of raw materials.

Through in-depth experiments he succeeded in the precise detection of the equivalence principle. After this important set of physics, the gravitational force depends only on the mass of the objects, but not of its substance, which, inter alia, means that the free fall in a vacuum all bodies fall equally fast. Generally refers to experiments that test the equality of gravitational and inertial mass, as Eötvös experiments.

When he was in 1894 for a short period of Hungarian Culture and Minister of Education, Reformed Eötvös Loránd the secondary schools of the country. He founded the Joseph Eötvös College for training good teachers and admitted to the teaching of mathematics an important role. This affects up to today in the European Puzzle and Mathematics Olympiads, whose competitions are often won by Hungarian high school students.

From 1886 until his death researched and taught Loránd Eötvös University Budapest, which is named after him since 1950 ( Eotvos Lorand University / Eötvös Loránd TUDOMÁNYEGYETEM ).

In 1883 he was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was its president from 1889 to 1905.

In addition to his scientific work, Eötvös His daughters Ilona and Rolanda from Eötvös were was a noted mountaineer, several first ascents (mostly with the mountain guide Michel Innerkofler ) conducted in the Dolomites, such as Sesto Croda Rossa 1878. Likewise known in the Dolomites as mountaineers. He was for many years President of the Hungarian Tourism Association.

Anecdotes

Valentine Telegdi relates the following anecdote about Eötvös, the minister of education claim to the title " Excellency " had a (former ). Eötvös a registered medical student. When he accidentally spoke to him in the test pressure with Professor, Eötvös said: Now, my young friend, when we have reached this point, you can call me the same Uncle Roland. Telegdi, who was himself a Hungarian, also stressed that it was extremely unusual for the Hungarian gentry to go into research or teaching.

Named after him are also

• The Eötvössche rule
• The now illegal Eötvös unit for specifying gravity changes between different geographical measurement points in geophysics.
• In the field of fluid mechanics, the Eötvös number as a dimensionless parameter for determining the shape of a fluid sphere ( bubble, etc.) will be used.
• The crater Eötvös on the moon.
• The mountain summit Cima Eötvös Cadini the Group in the Dolomites.
• The mineral Lorandite