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Joseph Larmor
Times obituary
A GREAT MATHEMATICAL PHYSICIST
Sir Joseph Larmor, Sc.D., F.R.S., Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge from 1903 to 1932, who died yesterday at Holywood, Co. Down, was a mathematical physicist of great ciminence. His chief researches belong to the years about 1895–1905, a transition period between the mid-Victorian expansion of physical science and the new conceptions associated with quantum theory and the theory of relativity. Larmor's work, although rooted in older physics, has not been effaced by newer developments. Of his numerous distinctions, it is enough to mention that in 1921 he received the Copley Medal, the highest award of the Royal Society.
Larmor was born at Magheragal, Co. Antrim, on July 11, 1857. From the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, he obtained a double first in the scholarship examination at Queen's College, Belfast, where he graduated with the highest honours. From there, he went to St. John's College, Cambridge. He took the Mathematical Tripos in 1880, coming out as Senior Wrangler, J. J. Thomson being Second Wrangler—a most powerful combination. From 1880 to 1885, he was Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's College, Galway. He then returned to St. John's as lecturer. In 1903, the Lucasian professorship fell vacant due to the death of Sir George Stokes, and Larmor, the obvious successor, came to fill the chair once held by Sir Isaac Newton.
From 1894 to 1897 he published a notable series of memoirs on electromagnetic theory; these form the foundation of his "Aether and Matter," published in 1900. The purpose was to systematically work out the idea, then gaining ground, that matter is essentially an electrical structure; in particular, Maxwell's theory, which regarded electricity as a continuous fluid, was transformed into an electron theory which recognizes that electricity, like matter, is atomic in character. This was much in keeping with the experimental advances of the time; but the electron was not discovered experimentally until 1897. In "Aether and Matter," the term electron is used indiscriminately for positive and negative charges, although it was not until 12 years later that this view of the nature of positive electricity became harmonized with experimental knowledge.
Larmor showed that, if matter is electrically constituted, any moving object must suffer a minute contraction in the direction of its line of motion. This phenomenon is the founding stone of the theory of relativity formulated by Einstein in 1905 and has led to the most far-reaching results. The suggestion of such a contraction was a brilliant guess propounded by FitzGerald to explain the unexpected result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. In the light of Larmor's theory, it became an immediate deduction from the electromagnetic laws universally accepted. Among Larmor's other outstanding contributions were his formula for radiation of energy by an accelerated electron and his theory of the precession of electron orbits in a magnetic field. He wrote valuable papers on a variety of subjects, including hydrodynamics, waves, and the theory of Least Action.
Larmor was decidedly conservative in his scientific views. It was difficult to ascertain how much he appreciated the new developments (especially quantum theory) because he was accustomed to adopting a pose which exaggerated his aloofness. He wavered much over Einstein's theory of gravitation. For a short time he became a full convert, but afterwards relapsed into opposition. In the end he rejected not only the curvature of space, but even the standpoint of the earlier special relativity theory.
Although his heart was with the physicist of the 19th century, he at least threw off the obsession which possessed an earlier generation—that everything must be explained as though the universe had been made from materials and contrivances similar to those found in the engineering workshop. He was one of the first in this country to develop and advocate this freedom. The aether of "Aether and Matter" was not a material substance possessing density, compressibility, or other characteristics of gross matter; It was an entity of a different order with properties of its own, discovered experimentally and described symbolically, in which the freely mobile intrinsic strains were shown to give birth to the commonly recognized properties of matter.
Larmor was strongly attached to his native country and generally spent part of the summer in Ireland. It was probably his intense feeling over the Irish question which persuaded him to enter Parliament. He represented Cambridge University as a Unionist from 1911 to 1922. His most important work outside the university was as Secretary of the Royal Society from 1901 to 1912.
A GREAT MATHEMATICAL PHYSICIST
Sir Joseph Larmor, Sc.D., F.R.S., Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge from 1903 to 1932, who died yesterday at Holywood, Co. Down, was a mathematical physicist of great ciminence. His chief researches belong to the years about 1895–1905, a transition period between the mid-Victorian expansion of physical science and the new conceptions associated with quantum theory and the theory of relativity. Larmor's work, although rooted in older physics, has not been effaced by newer developments. Of his numerous distinctions, it is enough to mention that in 1921 he received the Copley Medal, the highest award of the Royal Society.
Larmor was born at Magheragal, Co. Antrim, on July 11, 1857. From the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, he obtained a double first in the scholarship examination at Queen's College, Belfast, where he graduated with the highest honours. From there, he went to St. John's College, Cambridge. He took the Mathematical Tripos in 1880, coming out as Senior Wrangler, J. J. Thomson being Second Wrangler—a most powerful combination. From 1880 to 1885, he was Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen's College, Galway. He then returned to St. John's as lecturer. In 1903, the Lucasian professorship fell vacant due to the death of Sir George Stokes, and Larmor, the obvious successor, came to fill the chair once held by Sir Isaac Newton.
From 1894 to 1897 he published a notable series of memoirs on electromagnetic theory; these form the foundation of his "Aether and Matter," published in 1900. The purpose was to systematically work out the idea, then gaining ground, that matter is essentially an electrical structure; in particular, Maxwell's theory, which regarded electricity as a continuous fluid, was transformed into an electron theory which recognizes that electricity, like matter, is atomic in character. This was much in keeping with the experimental advances of the time; but the electron was not discovered experimentally until 1897. In "Aether and Matter," the term electron is used indiscriminately for positive and negative charges, although it was not until 12 years later that this view of the nature of positive electricity became harmonized with experimental knowledge.
Larmor showed that, if matter is electrically constituted, any moving object must suffer a minute contraction in the direction of its line of motion. This phenomenon is the founding stone of the theory of relativity formulated by Einstein in 1905 and has led to the most far-reaching results. The suggestion of such a contraction was a brilliant guess propounded by FitzGerald to explain the unexpected result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. In the light of Larmor's theory, it became an immediate deduction from the electromagnetic laws universally accepted. Among Larmor's other outstanding contributions were his formula for radiation of energy by an accelerated electron and his theory of the precession of electron orbits in a magnetic field. He wrote valuable papers on a variety of subjects, including hydrodynamics, waves, and the theory of Least Action.
Larmor was decidedly conservative in his scientific views. It was difficult to ascertain how much he appreciated the new developments (especially quantum theory) because he was accustomed to adopting a pose which exaggerated his aloofness. He wavered much over Einstein's theory of gravitation. For a short time he became a full convert, but afterwards relapsed into opposition. In the end he rejected not only the curvature of space, but even the standpoint of the earlier special relativity theory.
Although his heart was with the physicist of the 19th century, he at least threw off the obsession which possessed an earlier generation—that everything must be explained as though the universe had been made from materials and contrivances similar to those found in the engineering workshop. He was one of the first in this country to develop and advocate this freedom. The aether of "Aether and Matter" was not a material substance possessing density, compressibility, or other characteristics of gross matter; It was an entity of a different order with properties of its own, discovered experimentally and described symbolically, in which the freely mobile intrinsic strains were shown to give birth to the commonly recognized properties of matter.
Larmor was strongly attached to his native country and generally spent part of the summer in Ireland. It was probably his intense feeling over the Irish question which persuaded him to enter Parliament. He represented Cambridge University as a Unionist from 1911 to 1922. His most important work outside the university was as Secretary of the Royal Society from 1901 to 1912.
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