Introduction
You probably won't be surprised if I say that the hero of today's IQ overload was a Nobel Prize winner - if you have read the first episode of IQ overload you know that 17 of participants of the 5th Solvay Conference won this prize (what a cumulation of geniuses, I'm still impressed).
Arthur Compton, the mastermind of today's show, is the first American in my IQ overload series (I'm not including bonus parts). This detail is important - his life was a little bit different than European geniuses life.
In the previous IQ overload part, I shared my thoughts about family traditions in the field of science. Louis de Broglie was an example that not following a family tradition can sometimes be crucial for the world. But while I was preparing this post I realized that the problem of decisions is much more complex than I thought.
His life, my thoughts, again
image credits: Wikimedia
Early life
Arthur Compton was born on September 10, 1892, in Wooster (Ohio). He came from academic-related family. His father Elias was a Professor of Philosophy and a dean of the College of Wooster. His elder brother - Karl - was a reputable physicist. Karl got his Ph.D. in 1912 and in 1930 he became a president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Arthur's younger brother - Wilson - was also well-read. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 1916. Worth to mention is fact that their mother - Otelia Catherine - was named American Mother of the Year in 1939. It means that they had a great environment to develop their great minds.
Let's get back to Arthur. 1913 was the year when he graduated from the College of Wooster. The following moments were crucial - Arthur wanted to take up a religious career. I won't even say how it would affect our world. Fortunately, his father told him:
Your work in this field [science] may become a more valuable Christian service than if you were to enter the ministry or become a missionary.Next big step was a master degree - Arthur got it in 1914 at Princeton University. Two years later he received Ph.D. at the same university with a thesis: "The intensity of X-ray reflection, and the distribution of the electrons in atoms".
source: history.aip.org
In the USA industrial laboratories were growing much more rapidly than academic labs. A lot of American scientists had a job in the industry - Arthur Compton was one of them. In 1917 he started working as a research engineer for Westinghouse. Two years later Compton was awarded National Research Council fellowship.
What if...
The problem of making decisions and its effect on the world is fascinating. Just imagine - what if Arthur's father hadn't advised him to take up a science career. A young man isn't sure what path he should choose. What a common situation... But Arthur Compton wasn't common. Have you ever wondered how many geniuses chose a wrong path in a similar situation? How important in this kind of moments is the adviser (in this case Arthur's father)?
People's decisions determinate our world. What does it mean? The state of our knowledge is a derivative of decisions that have been made by others in the past. This means that our world could be almost completely different. Not only science, but also political situations like wars etc.
Compton scattering
image credits: Wikimedia
The National Research Council fellowship let Compton study some effect that, as it turned out, was very important in the development of quantum mechanics and for what he received the Nobel Prize in 1927. This was experimental confirmation of the existence of photons.
Look at the picture above. This black point is an electron, and wave with wavelength λ is an x-ray. When it hits the electron, both x-ray and electron are scattered away. Look at the wavelength again - now it is marked λ'. Why?
According to classical electromagnetism, the initial x-ray wavelength should be equal to wavelength after hitting the electron. It turned out that we can't use classical electromagnetism here. The quantum mechanics is the right tool.
λ'>λ; what does it tell us?
Arthur Compton used Einstein's particles of light to explain this phenomenon. So, it was photon hitting electron at rest. Look at this energy of photon equation: E=hc/λ. We know that h and c are constants. We also know that λ of x-ray after meeting with electron increases. So we can with great confidence say that energy of photon has decreased.
Compton connected quantum mechanics and special relativity with one equation describing the phenomenon later called Compton effect:
source: Wikipedia
Manhattan Project
The 2nd World War accelerated the science. In the USA the well-known Manhattan Project connected many great American scientists. One of them was Arthur Compton, who was in charge of the "Metallurgical Laboratory" in Chicago. Compton with others was working on the fission chain reaction.
It was a race. Who will be the first to construct the atomic bomb, Americans or Germans. Both camps had great physicists and engineers. It was a hard time for them, they were under pressure.
Arthur Compton was a leader and he ordered Robert Oppenheimer designing the bomb. As you probably know, Americans were successful and they built a bomb. Compton remained a scientific adviser through the whole war.
Later years
After the war Arthur Compton became chancellor of Washington University and a few years later Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy there. He retired in 1961 and resided in Berkeley, where on March 15, 1962 he died.
Summary
image credits: Wikimedia
In this article, I wrote about a great scientist from the USA - Arthur Compton. He was the one who experimentally confirmed the existence of photons, the particles of light. His decisions made me think, so I shared my thoughts about a personal decisions effects on the world.
References:
- more about Arthur Compton: nobelprize.org, atomicarchive.com, history.aip.org and Wikipedia
- more about Compton effect: Le Mouth's article, Wikipedia
0. IQ overload: the story of one photo
1. IQ overload: Maria Skłodowska-Curie
2. IQ overload: Niels Bohr
3. IQ overload: Albert Einstein
4. IQ overload: Werner Heisenberg
5. IQ overload: Erwin Schrödinger
6. IQ overload: Max Planck
7. IQ overload: Louis de Broglie
8. IQ overload: Arthur Compton
Bonus parts:
#2017 IQ overload: Barry Barish, Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne
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