Everything about G Johnstone Stoney totally explained
George Johnstone Stoney (
February 15,
1826 –
July 5,
1911) was an
Anglo-Irish physicist most famous for introducing the term
electron as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity". He had introduced the concept, though not the word, as early as 1874 and 1881, and the word came in 1891.
(External Link
) He published around 75 scientific papers during his lifetime.
Life Background
Stoney was born on
15 February,
1826 at Oak Park, near
Birr,
County Offaly, in the
Irish midlands. He attended
Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a B.A. in
1848 and an M.A. in
1852. In
1848 he became an assistant to
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse at Birr Castle, County Offaly, where Parsons had built the world's largest telescope, the 72-inch
Leviathan of Parsonstown.
In
1852, Stoney became Professor of Natural Philosophy at
Queen's College Galway (now the
National University of Ireland, Galway). In
1857, he moved to Dublin as Secretary of the Queen's University. He subsequently became superintendent of Civil Service Examinations in Ireland, a post he held until his retirement in
1893. In that year, he took up residence in
London. Stoney died on
5 July,
1911 at his home in
Notting Hill,
London.
Scientific Work
Stoney published seventy-five scientific papers in a variety of journals, making significant contributions to cosmic physics and to the theory of gases. He estimated the number of
molecules in a cubic millimetre of gas, at room temperature and pressure, from data obtained from the kinetic theory of gases. Stoney's most important scientific work was the conception and calculation of the magnitude of the "atom of electricity". In
1891, he proposed the term '
electron' to describe the fundamental unit of electrical charge, and his contributions to research in this area laid the foundations for the eventual discovery of the particle by
J.J. Thomson in
1897.
The Stoney Scale
Contemporary physics has settled on the
Planck scale as the most suitable scale for a
unified theory. The Planck scale was however anticipated by George Stoney [StoneyG. On The Physical Units of Nature, Phil.Mag.
11,381-391,1881]. Like Planck after him, Stoney realized that large-scale effects such as gravity and small-scale effects such as electromagnetism naturally imply an intermediate scale where physical differences might be rationalized. This intermediate scale comprises units (
Stoney units)) of mass, length, time etc., yet mass is the cornerstone.
The Stoney mass
(expressed in contemporary terms):
»
where
is the reduced
Planck's constant and
c is the
speed of light. It should be noted however that these are only mathematical constructs since there must be some practical limit to how small a length can get. If the Stoney length is the minimum length then either a body's electromagnetic radius or its half gravitational radius is a physical impossibility, since one of these must be smaller than the Stoney length. If
Planck length is the minimum then either a body's reduced Compton wavelength or its half gravitational radius is a physical impossibility since one of these must be smaller than the Planck length. Moreover, the Stoney length and Planck length can't both be the minimum length.
According to contemporary convention, Planck scale is the scale of
vacuum energy, below which space and time don't retain any physical significance. This prescription mandates a general neglect of the Stoney scale within the scientific community today. Previous to this mandate,
Hermann Weyl made a notable attempt to construct a unified theory by associating a gravitational unit of charge with the Stoney length. Weyl's theory led to significant mathematical innovations but his theory is generally thought to lack physical significance [O'RaifeartaighL. The Dawning of Gauge Theory, Princeton Uni Press, 1997][GorelikG. 'Herman Weyl and Large Numbers in Relativistic Cosmology', Einstein Studies in Russia, Ed Balashov Y. and Vizgin V., Boston (Birkhaeuser)2002].
Other
Craters on
Mars and the
Moon are named in his honour.
Stoney was the uncle of the
Anglo-Irish physicist
George FitzGerald. The two were in regular communication on scientific matters. In addition both Stoney and FitzGerald were active opponents of
Home Rule for Ireland, regarding the spirit of Home Rule and later
Irish nationalism as contrary to the spirit of science as they saw it. Stoney was also distantly related to
Alan Turing.
Stoney married his cousin and resided on Stoney Road,
Dundrum, Dublin, which was named in his honour. After Stoney died in London, his cremated ashes were buried in
Dundrum, Dublin.
Further Information
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