Strutt was born on 12 November 1842 at Langford Grove, Maypole Road inMaldon,Essex.[4] In his early years he suffered from frailty and poor health.[5] He attendedEton College andHarrow School (each for only a short period),[6] before going on to theUniversity of Cambridge in 1861 where he studied mathematics atTrinity College. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree (Senior Wrangler and 1stSmith's Prize) in 1865, and aMaster of Arts in 1868.[7] He was subsequently elected to a fellowship of Trinity. He held the post until his marriage to Evelyn Balfour, daughter ofJames Maitland Balfour, in 1871. He had three sons with her.[6] In 1873, on the death of his father, John Strutt, 2nd Baron Rayleigh, he inherited theBarony of Rayleigh. Rayleigh was elected fellow of theRoyal Society on 12 June 1873.
On this post he carefully and precisely measuredatomic mass of oxygen and hydrogen, and by 1892 he moved on tonitrogen. By isolating nitrogen in different ways he discovered a small but significant difference, which indicated a heavier inert gas present in the air besides nitrogen.William Ramsay joined this research topic, and in August they discoveredargon.[9][10]
Around 1900 Rayleigh developed theduplex (combination of two) theory of human sound localisation using twobinaural cues,interaural phase difference (IPD) andinteraural level difference (ILD) (based on analysis of a spherical head with no externalpinnae). The theory posits that we use two primary cues for sound lateralisation, using the difference in the phases ofsinusoidal components of the sound and the difference in amplitude (level) between the two ears.
Caricature of Lord Rayleigh in the London magazineVanity Fair, 1899
In 1904 he was awarded theNobel Prize for Physics "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery ofargon in connection with these studies".
Rayleigh served as president of the Royal Society from 1905 to 1908. From time to time he participated in theHouse of Lords; however, he spoke up only if politics attempted to become involved in science.
Rayleigh married Evelyn Georgiana Mary (née Balfour). He died on 30 June 1919, at his home inWitham, Essex.[6][15] He was succeeded, as the 4th Lord Rayleigh, by his sonRobert John Strutt, another well-known physicist. Lord Rayleigh was buried in the graveyard of All Saints' Church inTerling in Essex.
Rayleigh was anAnglican. Though he did not write about the relationship of science and religion, he retained a personal interest in spiritual matters.[16] When his scientific papers were to be published in a collection by theCambridge University Press, Strutt wanted to include a quotation from theBible, but he was discouraged from doing so, as he later reported:
When I was bringing out myScientific Papers I proposed a motto from thePsalms,"The Works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." The Secretary to the Press suggested with many apologies that the reader might suppose that I was the Lord.[17][18]
Still, he had his wish and the quotation was printed in the five-volume collection of scientific papers. In a letter to a family member, he wrote about his rejection ofmaterialism and spoke ofJesus Christ as a moral teacher:
I have never thought the materialist view possible, and I look to a power beyond what we see, and to a life in which we may at least hope to take part. What is more, I think that Christ and indeed other spiritually gifted men see further and truer than I do, and I wish to follow them as far as I can.
He held an interest inparapsychology and was an early member of theSociety for Psychical Research (SPR). He was not convinced ofspiritualism but remained open to the possibility ofsupernatural phenomena.[22] Rayleigh was the president of the SPR in 1919. He gave a presidential address in the year of his death but did not come to any definite conclusions.[23][24]
The lunar craterRayleigh as well as the Martian craterRayleigh were named in his honour.[25][26] The asteroid22740 Rayleigh was named after him on 1 June 2007.[27] A type of surface waves are known asRayleigh waves, and the elastic scattering of electromagnetic waves is calledRayleigh scattering. Therayl, a unit ofspecific acoustic impedance, is also named for him. Rayleigh was also awarded with (in chronological order):
SirWilliam Ramsay, his co-worker in the investigation to discover argon described Rayleigh as "the greatest man alive" while speaking to Lady Ramsay during his last illness.[31]
H. M. Hyndman said of Rayleigh that "no man ever showed less consciousness of great genius".[31]
Many of the papers that he wrote onlubrication[32] are now recognized as early classical contributions to the field oftribology. For these contributions, he was named as one of the 23 "Men of Tribology" byDuncan Dowson.[33]
^Peter J. Bowler (2014).Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain, University of Chicago Press. p. 35
^Robert John Strutt Baron Rayleigh (1924).John William Strutt: Third Baron Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., Sometime President of the Royal Society and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, E. Arnold & Company, p. 307
^Lord Rayleigh (Robert John Strutt), John William Strutt Baron Rayleigh (1964). "An Appraisal of Rayleigh", Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Office of Aerospace Research, U.S. Air Force. p. 1150.
^Melba Phillips (1992),The Life and Times of Modern Physics: History of Physics II. American Institute of Physics. p. 50
^As quoted in R. J. Strutt. John William Strutt. p. 361. inReconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain, by Peter J. Bowler (2014). p. 35
^Sir William Gavin (1967).Ninety Years of Family Farming: The Story of Lord Rayleigh's and Strutt & Parker Farms. Hutchinson, p. 37
^DeYoung, Ursula. (2011).A Vision of Modern Science: John Tyndall and the Role of the Scientist in Victorian Culture. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 178.ISBN978-0-230-11053-3
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