John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh , was an English <a href="/facts/Physicist/cQcgvSIm">physicist</a>. He spent all of his academic career at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Cambridge/0la7aX9o">University of Cambridge</a>. Among many honours, he received the <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics/o6w1nCbr">Nobel Prize in Physics</a> in 1904 "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery of <a href="/facts/Argon/QX6NRH6d">argon</a> in connection with these studies". He served as president of the <a href="/facts/Royal_Society/KI5yXCuV">Royal Society</a> from 1905 to 1908 and as chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1908 to 1919.
Rayleigh provided the first theoretical treatment of the elastic scattering of light by particles much smaller than the light's wavelength, a phenomenon now known as "<a href="/facts/Rayleigh_scattering/o0MQtPMM">Rayleigh scattering</a>", which notably explains why the sky is blue. He studied and described transverse <a href="/facts/Surface_wave/YexYxuur">surface waves</a> in solids, now known as "<a href="/facts/Rayleigh_wave/QAlu9lQo">Rayleigh waves</a>". He contributed extensively to <a href="/facts/Fluid_dynamics/y7uzSCfg">fluid dynamics</a>, with concepts such as the <a href="/facts/Rayleigh_number/FyQzjs6E">Rayleigh number</a> (a <a href="/facts/Dimensionless_number/TINrpQIq">dimensionless number</a> associated with <a href="/facts/Natural_convection/CSGApHgP">natural convection</a>), <a href="/facts/Rayleigh_flow/ymh1plzP">Rayleigh flow</a>, the <a href="/facts/Rayleigh%E2%80%93Taylor_instability/hmdtnnAc">Rayleigh–Taylor instability</a>, and Rayleigh's criterion for the stability of <a href="/facts/Taylor%E2%80%93Couette_flow/EWzC6htW">Taylor–Couette flow</a>. He also formulated the circulation theory of <a href="/facts/Lift_(force)/ehQKKaWP">aerodynamic lift</a>. In <a href="/facts/Optics/p0vq4S1T">optics</a>, Rayleigh proposed a well-known criterion for <a href="/facts/Angular_resolution/wJarPBWF">angular resolution</a>. His derivation of the <a href="/facts/Rayleigh%E2%80%93Jeans_law/qlvgQ5jb">Rayleigh–Jeans law</a> for classical black-body radiation later played an important role in the birth of <a href="/facts/Quantum_mechanics/BRc3Mzgr">quantum mechanics</a> (see <a href="/facts/Ultraviolet_catastrophe/rRM4PTQU">ultraviolet catastrophe</a>). Rayleigh's textbook The Theory of Sound (1877) is still used today by <a href="/facts/Acoustics/2GpQUymy">acousticians</a> and engineers. He introduced the <a href="/facts/Rayleigh_test/eVFh0JQp">Rayleigh test</a> for circular non-uniformity, of which the <a href="/facts/Raleigh_plot/JtL9vbyS">Rayleigh plot</a> visualizes.

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh open-in-new

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh