HendrikAntoonLorentz (1853 July18 ~1928 February 4th), English name: Hendrikantoonlorentz. An outstanding theoretical physicist and mathematician in modern times, the founder of classical electronic theory.

He fills the gap between classical electromagnetic field theory and relativity, is a connecting link between classical physics and modern physics, and is the leader of the first generation of theoretical physicists. He and his compatriot Zeeman shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics. He also derived the transformation equation of Einstein's special theory of relativity, which is now known as Lorentz transformation. He is also the chairman of the Committee of the International Union for Scientific Cooperation.

Chinese name: Hendrick Antoine Lorenz.

Mbth: HendrikAntoonLorentz

Alias: Lorenz

Nationality: Netherlands

Place of birth: Anan, the Netherlands.

Date of birth: 1853 July 18

Date of death:1February 4, 928 (74 years old)

Occupation: physicist, mathematician

Graduate school: Leiden University

Faith: dialectical materialism

Main achievements: classical electronic theory and Zeeman effect theory.

Masterpiece: Lorentz transformation formula

Position: Leiden University

Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1902)

biography

1853 July 18 was born in Anan, the Netherlands. Lorenz's father, Park Jung Su Friedrich Lorenz, runs a baby care center near Alem, the Netherlands. His mother died when he was very young. When Lorenz was 9 years old, his father remarried. He did well in primary and secondary schools there. At that time, he was always the first in his class.

Lorenz was interested in physics when he was a teenager. At the same time, he widely read history and novels and mastered many foreign languages. Hendrick Antoine Lorenz is very talented in language. He can master a foreign language quickly and infer its grammar from the context. For a person who has lived in several closed cities in the Netherlands all his life and wants to talk to the world, this talent is a great asset. Although he was born in a Protestant family, he is very free in religious affairs and can often participate in French learning activities in local churches in France. This laid the foundation for Lorenz to become a leader in the scientific community.

1870, Lorenz was admitted to Leiden University, where he studied mathematics, physics and astronomy, mainly mathematics and physics. He became friends with Friedrich Kaiser, a professor of astronomy, and he was extremely interested in his theoretical astronomy course. He was also deeply influenced by Leonhardt Rick, the only physics professor at Leiden University at that time. A year and a half later, Lorenz passed the math and physics exams, and then returned to Anan to prepare his doctoral thesis. During this period, he bought Fresnel Selected Works, which was his first supplementary textbook. He highly praised Fresnel's works and thought Fresnel was unparalleled among physicists of that generation. Speaking of contemporary physicists, he admires Hertz most.

1873, Lorenz passed the doctoral examination with excellent results.

1875 received a doctorate.

1877, Leiden university hired him as a professor of theoretical physics. This position was first set up for J.D. Van Walls, and it has a high academic status. Lorenz was only 23 years old at that time. He taught at Leiden University for 35 years, and all his contributions to physics were made during this period.

188 1 year, Lorenz married Aletta Caesar, the niece of an astronomy professor at his university, and had two daughters and two sons, the oldest of whom died. Lorenz's eldest daughter often talks about his impression of his father: he often engages in difficult research, but it won't make you feel that he is doing difficult calculations; He doesn't have the eccentric behavior of a genius, nor does he have the sour taste of a scholar. In her daughter's mind, Lorenz is a scholar with good habits and cautious personality; Moreover, he is good at socializing, and always shows his sense of humor and talent for dialogue when cigars and red wine are intertwined. Everyone who knows him thinks that he is a man with a noble heart.

1895, he put forward the famous Lorentz force formula.

1896, Lorenz successfully explained the phenomenon of magnetic splitting of atomic spectrum recently discovered by Zeeman of Leiden University with electronic theory. Lorenz concluded that this phenomenon was caused by the vibration of negative electrons in atoms. The negative electron charge-mass ratio deduced by him in theory is consistent with the results obtained by Thomson from cathode ray experiments the following year. Lorenz and Zeeman shared the Nobel Prize of 1902 due to the discovery and explanation of Zeeman effect.

19 12 Lorenz resigned as a professor at Leiden University, went to Harlem as a consultant of a museum, and served as an honorary professor at Leiden University. Every Monday morning, he gives lectures on some current issues in physics at Leiden University. Later, he also served in the Dutch government.

19 19 ~ 1926 worked in the education department, and served as the minister of higher education at 192 1.

1911~1927 served as the fixed chairman of the Solvi physics conference. He is often a very popular host at various gatherings in the international physics community.

Chairman of the Committee of the International Union for Scientific Cooperation. He is also a foreign academician of many Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the World Science Society.

Lorenz died on February 4th, 1928 in Habum, the Netherlands, at the age of 75. In order to mourn the giant of Dutch modern culture, on the day of the funeral, telecommunications and telephone calls across the Netherlands were suspended for three minutes. Celebrities from scientific circles around the world attended the funeral. Einstein delivered a speech in front of Lorenz's tomb, saying that Lorenz's achievements "had the greatest influence on me" and he was "the greatest and noblest man of our time".

Scientific achievements

The establishment of electronic theory

Lorenz's most important contribution to physics is his electronic theory. Long before he wrote his thesis, he was deeply influenced by Fresnel's collected works. Later, inspired by H. von Helmholtz, he used J. C. Maxwell's electromagnetic theory to deal with the reflection and refraction of light at the dielectric interface as his doctoral thesis. At the end of the paper, he mentioned the prospect of combining magneto-optical theory with material molecular theory, which was the root of his later creation of electronic theory.

Lorenz believes that all matter molecules contain electrons, and cathode ray particles are electrons. The interaction between ether and matter comes down to the interaction between ether and electron. This theory successfully explained Zeeman effect, and together with Zeeman, it won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Lorenz is the founder of classical electronic theory. He believes that electricity is "atomic" and that electricity itself is composed of tiny entities. Later, these tiny entities were called electrons. Lorenz explained the electrical properties of matter according to the concept of electron. It is deduced from the electronic theory that the moving charge will be acted by a force in the magnetic field, that is, Lorentz force. He interpreted the luminescence of an object as the vibration of electrons inside an atom. In this way, when the light source is placed in a magnetic field, the vibration of electrons in the atoms of the light source will change, which will increase or decrease the vibration frequency of electrons and lead to the broadening or splitting of spectral lines. 1In June, 896, Lorenz's student Zeeman found that the D line of sodium spectrum was obviously broadened in the strong magnetic field, that is, Zeeman effect was produced, which confirmed Lorenz's prediction. Zeeman and Lorenz both won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1904, Lorenz proved that when Maxwell's electromagnetic field equation is transformed from one frame of reference to another through galilean transformation, the speed of light in vacuum will not be a constant, which leads to Maxwell's equation and various electromagnetic effects may be different for observers in different inertial frames. In order to solve this problem, Lorenz proposed another transformation formula, namely Lorenz transformation. Later, Einstein applied Lorentz transformation to mechanical relations and founded special relativity.

Lorentz transformation formula

Before the theory of relativity, H.A. Lorentz started from the concept of absolute static ether and considered the material process of object motion and contraction, and obtained Lorentz transformation. In Lorenz theory, the quantity introduced by transformation is only an auxiliary means in mathematics, and it does not include the relativistic view of time and space. Einstein is different from Lorenz. Based on the observed facts and two basic principles: the principle of relativity and the principle of invariability of the speed of light, Einstein made great efforts to modify the basic concepts of motion, time and space, re-deduced the Lorentz transformation, and endowed it with brand-new physical content. In the special theory of relativity, Lorentz transformation is the most basic relationship. The kinematic conclusions and spatio-temporal properties of the special theory of relativity, such as relativity of simultaneity, length contraction, time delay, velocity transformation formula and relativistic Doppler effect, can be directly obtained from Lorentz transformation.

The basic expression of space-time coordinate transformation of physical events between different inertial systems in special relativity. Let two inertial systems be S system and S' system, and their corresponding Cartesian coordinate axes are parallel to each other. The S' system moves in the X direction at the speed of V relative to the S- system. When t=t'=0, the S' system coincides with the coordinate origin of the S- system, then the Lorentz transformation of the event between the space-time coordinates of the two inertial systems is X' = γ (x-v * t), Y'. C is the speed of light in a vacuum. Under the Lorentz transformation, the laws of physics in different inertial systems must remain unchanged.

Physics educator

Lorenz is also an educator. For many years, he has been teaching general physics and theoretical physics at Leiden University, and has written textbooks on calculus and general physics. In Harlem, he devoted himself to lectures on popular physics. He spent most of his life testing other people's theories and giving help. He is enthusiastic and modest, and is respected by the younger generation of theoretical physicists such as Einstein and Schrodinger. They have visited Leiden University many times for advice. Einstein once said that he was most influenced by Lorenz in his life.

As the first generation theoretical physicist, Lorenz's remarkable feature is his unusual openness to a series of new ideas. After retirement, he gave a speech at Leiden University every week, which benefited many students. Lorenz's influence on theoretical physics is not only through his works, but also through his personal contact with young physicists from all over the world. Einstein, Schrodinger and other theoretical workers often visit him in Leiden to listen to his opinions on some of their latest ideas. Uhlenbeck and Goodschmidt, the authors of Spin, were also inspired by Lorenz at the critical stage of studying Spin. But he never interferes with other people's ideas, and his relationship with others is maintained by his kind and honest basic personality. However, Lorenz's openness is not entirely due to his personality. From his inaugural speech at Leiden University, we can know that this is Lorenz's professional opinion as a theoretical physicist. Lorenz said that the purpose of physics research is to seek simple basic principles that can explain all phenomena. However, he cautioned against attaching too much importance to the internal relations of the basic principles, or hoped that the principles themselves could be further developed. He believes that because people can't deeply understand the essence of things, it is rash to claim that any existing way of understanding is the only reliable way. Lorenz believes that different researchers should explore different basic theoretical methods at the same time.

Other achievements

Lorenz's dissertation is about physical optics, entitled "Theory of refraction and reflection of light". Fresnel did this project, but Lorenz reprocessed it with Maxwell's electromagnetic field theory. This study almost immediately established Lorenz's academic position in his country. Three years later, Leiden University hired him as a professor to chair the newly established lecture on theoretical physics. This setting is the earliest not only in the Netherlands but also in Europe. Lorenz accepted this position, which confirmed his career in the field of theoretical physics.

1892, Lorenz published the first paper on classical electronic theory. In this paper, Lorentz clearly separates the continuous field from the matter containing discrete electrons, and adds a Lorentz force equation to Maxwell's equations. Therefore, the continuous field and discrete electrons are connected by this Lorentz force. On this basis, Lorenz rearranged and formatted all the results of electromagnetic optics obtained at that time, which laid the foundation of classical electronic theory. Many theoretical physicists who studied electrodynamics from him believe that this is one of Lorenz's greatest contributions in his life.

When the new physics began to rise, Lorenz also deduced the formula of black body radiation energy distribution. He can only use his own theory to calculate the long-wave limit of energy spectrum. He understands that Planck 1900' s black body radiation quantum theory contains the whole spectrum, and Planck's quantum hypothesis is completely different from his own electronic theory. But in 1908, Lorenz agreed with Planck's quantum theory, and thought Planck's theory was the only one that could explain the whole spectrum of blackbody radiation. Lorenz is one of the first people who can point out and emphasize the profound opposition between quantum hypothesis and electronic theory hypothesis.

Before 1875, the unified idea of combining the electromagnetic theory of light with the molecular theory of matter has not been clearly put forward. Since then, Lorenz has made an in-depth study on this issue and wrote a paper entitled "Theory of Reflection and Refraction of Light", which comprehensively commented on the old wave theory of light and the new electromagnetic theory of light, and finally put forward this unified idea clearly, which not only made Maxwell's electromagnetic theory have a more solid physical foundation, but also established the electronic theory of matter. Then, according to the theory of electrons, he established the concept of "Lorentz force", which is the force that electrons are subjected to in a magnetic field. At the same time, he and his compatriot Zeeman discovered and verified Zeeman effect together. Zeeman effect is a theory that explains that various spectral lines emitted by a light source placed in a magnetic field are split into several lines under the influence of the magnetic field, and the interval between each spectral line is proportional to the magnetic field strength. Zeeman first discovered this phenomenon and studied it, but although he could correctly explain this phenomenon in theory through research, he encountered difficulties in the experiment. Lorenz experimented repeatedly and finally found the crux of the problem, and proved the correctness of Zeeman theory with experiments, which made Zeeman effect stand firm in theory and experiment and become a classic law in physics.

1878, he published a paper on the interaction between light and matter, which will distinguish Tai from ordinary matter and think that ether is static and ubiquitous, and the molecules of ordinary matter all contain charged harmonic oscillators; On this basis, he derived the formula of molecular refractive index (Lorenz-Lorenz formula).

1892, he studied the effect of the earth passing through the static ether. In order to explain the results of mcpherson-Morey experiment, he independently put forward the hypothesis of length contraction, which holds that the length of an object moving relative to the ether is shortened in the direction of motion. He began to publish articles on electronic theory. He believes that all matter molecules contain electrons, and cathode ray particles are electrons. Electrons are very small rigid spheres with mass, and they are completely transparent to ether. The interaction between ether and matter comes down to the interaction between ether and electrons in matter. On this basis, he put forward the famous Lorentz force formula in 1895. 1896, P. Zeeman discovered the spectral line splitting (Zeeman effect) of a light source placed in a magnetic field. Lorenz immediately explained this phenomenon quantitatively with his electronic theory. Because of this contribution, he and Zeeman won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1895, he published an accurate formula of length contraction, that is, in the direction of motion, the length contraction factor is (1-V2/C2) 1/2.

1899, in his published paper, he discussed the transformation of coordinates and time between inertial systems and drew the conclusion that electrons are related to speed.

1904, he published the famous transformation formula (first called Lorentz transformation by J.-H. Poincare) and the relationship between mass and speed, and pointed out that the speed of light is the limit of the speed of an object relative to the speed of ether.

In addition to the Nobel Prize in Physics, Lorenz also won the Renford and Copley medals of the Royal Society, and received honorary doctorates from the University of Paris and Cambridge, as well as honorary titles of foreign members of the German Physical Society and the Royal Society.

Personality charm

Lorenz's electronic theory pushed classical physics to its ultimate height. Lorenz himself almost became the commander-in-chief of physics at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. If Lorenz had not been so enlightened, this achievement might have made him withdraw from the historical stage prematurely. When the physics revolution at the turn of the century broke the classical physics classroom, Lorenz said that he regretted why he didn't die before the old foundation collapsed. But Lorenz's personality is "super-personal", and his regret for the past value is quickly replaced by his pleasant acceptance of new things.

Lorenz enjoyed high prestige in theoretical physics, knew many languages and was good at controlling the most disorderly debates, so he was invited to attend the most important international conferences in physics every time before his death and often served as the chairman of the conferences. 19 1 1 year, Lorenz presided over the first Solvi conference. This conference made the concept of quantum break through the boundaries of the German-speaking world from all directions and become an equally interesting topic in France and Britain.

After the First World War, Lorenz's open spirit was fully reflected in his cosmopolitan position. Lorenz made unremitting efforts to restore scientific internationalism. 1923, Lorenz was elected as a member of the International Cultural Cooperation Committee and became the chairman of the Committee after Bergson.

This essentially great and open spirit made Lorenz not only succeed academically, but also win the respect of his contemporaries in character. 1928+0 June, Lorenz was seriously ill; 1928 On February 4th, this great heart stopped beating. He is 75 years old, and the field of physics has lost a great leader. On February 10, on the day of his burial, the telegraph and telephone service in the Netherlands was suspended for 3 minutes to express condolences. Representatives of the Dutch royal family, government and various national academies attended the funeral. Rutherford, chairman of the Royal Society, a famous experimental physicist, Einstein, a representative of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the leader of the second generation of professional theoretical physicists, all made eulogies at his grave. Einstein deeply felt the great influence of Lorenz on him. He used "the greatest and noblest person of our time" to evaluate the tutor.

Activity experience

Lorenz is the most international among physicists. In the first 20 years of his career, his international works were limited to books. Later, he began to leave Leiden's research and classroom to have extensive personal contact with foreign scientists. His electronic theory made him a leader in physics.

1898, Lorenz accepted Boltzmann's invitation to give a speech at the physics group of the Dover Conference of the German Society for Natural Sciences and Medicine in Dissel.

From 65438 to 0900, he gave a speech at the International Physics Congress (a gathering of world physicists) in Paris.

Lorenz's most important international activity in the field of physics was as the regular chairman of Solvay Physics Conference (191-1927), and he presided over the last meeting before his death.

Lorenz presided over these international gatherings and became a recognized leader. Everyone admires his profound knowledge, brilliant technology, being good at summing up the most complicated arguments and extremely refined language. After the First World War, Lorenz's scientific activities began to add political color-this respected old man in the scientific community, in his sixties, ran for peace and borderless science and struggled to restore real scientific internationalism.

From 1909 to 192 1, he used his influence to persuade people to join the international scientific organizations founded by the allied countries after the war.

1923 became one of the seven members of the International Cultural Cooperation Committee of the League of Nations, replacing H.Bergson as the chairman.