Lord Kelvin Lord Kelvin Who was Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”?

Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME? ?

Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME? ? Hints His first name was NOT “Lord”!!

Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME? ? Hints His first name was NOT “Lord”!! His last name was NOT “Kelvin”!!

Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME? ? Hints His first name was NOT “Lord”!! His last name was NOT “Kelvin”!! “Lord Kelvin” was his

Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME? ? Hints His first name was NOT “Lord”!! His last name was NOT “Kelvin”!! “Lord Kelvin” was his British Title NOT his NAME!!

William Thompson (Baron Kelvin of Largs) “Lord Kelvin” • Born June 26 th 1824, Belfast, Ireland Graduated AT AGE 10 from The University of Glasgow!! – His father was a professor • Earned a BA from Cambridge • Much later, became chair of “natural philosophy” (PHYSICS) at Glasgow. • Died of the flu in 1907, in Scotland. • Got title “Baron Kelvin of Largs” in 1892. • Knighted by Queen Victoria for work on engines. • “Kelvin” was taken from a creek that ran through the Cambridge University campus. • Buried next to Sir Isaac Newton.

Lord Kelvin - William Thompson Just some of his many Achievements in Science & Technology • Published 661 scientific papers! • Held 70 patents! • Held the record for the most academic letters behind his name! (? ) • Engineering Contributions: – Supervised the laying of the first transatlantic cable. • Basic Science Contributions: – Helped Pierre & Marie Curie with the discovery of radium. – Was the first to make a detailed analysis of ocean tides.

• Kelvin also had many achievements in Optics! – First introduced the word chirality into science. – First to associate an object’s color with it’s temperature. – His ideas are still used today in color film & digital cameras. • Calculated the age of the earth from its rate of cooling & decided that Evolution & Geologic time were impossible! • This led to a public argument with Charles Darwin over evolution & the earth’s age. More on this some other time!

Some Interesting Kelvin Quotes • “When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science. ”

Some Interesting Kelvin Quotes • “When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science. ” • “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. ” (1895) • “I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial navigation other than ballooning. . . I do not care to be a member of the Aeronautical Society. ” (1896) • “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more precise measurement. ” (1900)

Lord Kelvin (1824 -1907) Kelvin’s Grave River Kelvin

• In 1906, Kelvin proposed the “Plum Pudding Model” of the atom. – Negative electrons were embedded into a positively charged spherical cloud. – Equal quantities of (+) and (–) charge distributed uniformly in the atom. – (+) is ~2000 X more massive than (–) Spherical Cloud of Positive Charge Electrons Plum Pudding

Sir William Thomson, 1 st Baron Kelvin (Lord Kelvin) 1824 - 1907 Kelvin Temperature Scale

Some Items in Science & Technology Named for Kelvin • Joule–Thomson effect • Thomson effect (thermoelectrics) • Mirror galvanometer • Siphon recorder • Kelvin material • Kelvin water dropper • Kelvin wave • Kelvin–Helmholtz instability • Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism

More Items in Science & Technology Named for Kelvin • Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity • Kelvin transform • Kelvin's circulation theorem • Kelvin bridge • Kelvin sensing • Kelvin equation • Magnetoresistance • Four-terminal sensing • Coined the term “kinetic energy”

More Interesting Kelvin Quotes • “In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting. ” • “In physics, you don't have to go around making trouble for yourself - nature does it for you. ” • “Radio has no future. The X-ray is a hoax. ” • Writing to Niagara Falls Power Company: “I trust you will avoid the gigantic mistake of alternating current. ” • [The vector] “has never been of the slightest use to any creature. ”

More Interesting Kelvin Quotes • “Tesla has contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time. ” • “Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, & repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense. ” • “Symmetrical equations are good in their place, but 'vector' is a useless survival, or offshoot from quaternions, and has never been of the slightest use to any creature. ”

More Interesting Kelvin Quotes • “ There cannot be a greater mistake than that of looking superciliously upon the practical applications of science. The life and soul of science is its practical application; and just as the great advances in mathematics have been made through the desire of discovering the solution of problems which were of a highly practical kind in mathematical science, so in physical science many of the greatest advances that have been made from the beginning of the world to the present time have been made in earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties of matter to some purpose useful to mankind. ”