Biografia de lord william thomson kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM GCVO PC PRS FRSE (June 26, 1824 – December 17, 1907) was a mathematical physicist, engineer, and outstanding leader in the physical sciences of the nineteenth century widely known for developing the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement. He was influential in making energy the fundamental concept for the development and expression of physical theories. He was also active in the laying of the first trans-Atlantic submarine communications cable in 1866, contributing both theoretical and practical support to the project.

Early life and work

Family

William Thomson was born on June 26, 1824 in Belfast. His father was Dr. James Thomson, a professor of mathematics at the Royal Academical Institution of Belfast. His mother was Margaret Gardiner. The couple had four boys and two girls, Thomson being the second eldest son. The family was raised in the Presbyterian Christian tradition. Thomson's elder brother, James, became an engineering professor.

Youth

When Thomson was six, his mother died; his father then assuming a greater role in his education that included tutoring sessions. In 1832, Thomson's father secured a professorship at the University of Glasgow. Thomson began study at Glasgow University in 1834 at the age of 11, not out of any precociousness; the University provided many of the facilities of an elementary school for abler pupils and this was a typical starting age. In 1839, John Pringle Nichol, the professor of astronomy, took the chair of natural philosophy. Nichol updated the curriculum, introducing the new mathematical works of Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier. The mathematical treatment was to influence Thomson in his later work. Between 1838 and 1841, he took up the study of astronomy, physi

British physicist, engineer and mathematician (1824–1907)

For other people named William Thomson, see William Thomson (disambiguation).

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907), was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research and mathematical analysis of electricity, was instrumental in the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and contributed significantly to unifying physics, which was then in its infancy of development as an emerging academic discipline. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883 and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. In 1892, he became the first scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords.

Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in Lord Kelvin's honour. While the existence of a coldest possible temperature, absolute zero, was known before his work, Kelvin determined its correct value as approximately −273.15 degrees Celsius or −459.67 degrees Fahrenheit. The Joule–Thomson effect is also named in his honour.

Kelvin worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electrical telegraph engineer and inventor which propelled him into the public eye and earned him wealth, fame, and honours. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project, he was knighted in 1866 by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and worked on the mariner's compass, which previously had limited reliability.

Kelvin was ennobled in 1892 in recognition of his achievements in thermodynamics, and of his opposition to Irish Home Rule, becoming Baron Kelvin, of Largs in the Cou

Scottish-Irish physicist William Thomson, better known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the 19th century and is best known today for inventing the international system of absolute temperature that bears his name. He made contributions to electricity, magnetism, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, geophysics and telegraphy and other fields, publishing more than 650 papers during his lifetime. Thomson was also an extremely skilled engineer who patented some 70 inventions and was involved heavily in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable. For that successful effort he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1866. The Baron was raised to peerage in the 1890s, and became known as Lord Kelvin of Largs.

Thomson was born in Belfast, Ireland, the fourth of seven children. His mother died in his youth, and his father, James, was solely responsible for most of his upbringing. The family relocated to Scotland in the early 1830s, where James accepted the mathematics chair at the University of Glasgow. The elder Thomson was a strict guardian guided in his ways by the Presbyterian Church, but he and his second son, William, were very close. It was from his father that William Thomson became acquainted early with mathematics, including developments in the field that were so new that they had not yet been published in textbooks. Thomson was admitted to the University of Glasgow at the age of 10 and flourished academically at the institute, where he first read The Analytical Theory of Heat by Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier. The methods of the French mathematician were controversial among British scientists at the time, and Thomson’s first published papers, which appeared when he was only a teenager under the pseudonym P.Q.R., were defenses of Fourier’s work. Instead of condemning Fourier’s mathematics, Thomson suggested that they could be used to study other forms of energy besides heat, such as electrical currents.

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