The Lord Rayleigh OM PRS |
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Born |
Langford Grove, Maldon, Essex, England, UK |
12 November 1842
Died | 30 June 1919 Terling Place, Witham, Essex, England, UK |
(aged 76)
Nationality | English |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Academic advisors | Edward John Routh |
Notable students | |
Known for | |
Notable awards |
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John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh OM PRS (/ˈreɪli/; 12 November 1842 – 30 June 1919) was a physicist who, with William Ramsay, discovered argon, an achievement for which he earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904. He also discovered the phenomenon now called Rayleigh scattering, which can be used to explain why the sky is blue, and predicted the existence of the surface waves now known as Rayleigh waves. Rayleigh's textbook, The Theory of Sound, is still referred to by acoustic engineers today.
John William Strutt, of Terling Place Essex, suffered from frailty and poor health in his early years. He attended Harrow School, before going on to the University of Cambridge in 1861 where he studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree (Senior Wrangler and 1st Smith's prize) in 1865, and a Master of Arts in 1868. He was subsequently elected to a Fellowship of Trinity. He held the post until his marriage to Evelyn Balfour, daughter of James Maitland Balfour, in 1871. He had three sons with her. In 1873, on the death of his father, John Strutt, 2nd Baron Rayleigh, he inherited the Barony of Rayleigh.