Hendrik Lorentz

Created and claimed by Joe Stapleton

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Nobel Prize Winning, Dutch Physicist who is best known for his theory of electromagnetic radiation.

Personal Life

Early Life and Education

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was born in Arnhem, Netherlands, on July 18, 1853. He was the son of nursery-owner Gerrit Frederik Lorentz and wife nee Geertruida van Ginkel. Lorentz was a gifted student. By the time he was 9, he had already mastered the use of the table of logarithms and [1] in 1866 when the first high school at Arnhem was opened, Lorentz was placed in 3rd form. After Lorentz finished his 5th form and a year of classics study, he entered University of Leyden in 1870 and obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and physics in 1871. He then returned to Arnhem in 1872 to become a night-school teacher while also working on his thesis about light diffraction. At the age of 22, Hendrik earned his doctor's degree in 1875 and three years he went on to be appointed to the Chair of Theoretical Physics at Leydon. He remained loyal to his Alma Mater and continued to teach there for the rest of his life. Henry married Aletta Catharina Kaiser and together they had three children. Hendrik died on February 4, 1928 from a serious illness. [2]

Major Contributions

Lorentz ether theory

This theory which was can be traced back to Lorentz's "The theory of electrons" was based on the ether theory of Augstin-Jean Fresnel, the electron theory of Rudolf Clausius and Maxwell's equations. He tried to correct their errors in their ether theorie. From this, he found that the condition of the ether is able to be described by the electric field and magnetic field. [3]

He found that the electromagnetic field of ether appears as a mediator between electrons and changes to these fields can not move faster than the speed of light. He also introduced his idea of Lorentz transformations to combat this problem.[4]

FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction

Also known as the "space contraction", the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction is the shortening in the length of an object measured by an observer in which the object is traveling at a non-zero velocity. George FitzGerald and Hendrik conceived this idea to explain the negative result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. Their statements implied but never mentioned the idea that electrostatic fields in motion are deformed. Their theory was deemed an ad hoc hypothesis because there was no evidence to support that electromagnetic forces behave in the same way as intermolecular forces. FitzGerald and Lorentz's implications eventually led to the formula:[5]

"[math]\displaystyle{ L=\frac{L_{0}}{\gamma(v)}=L_{0}\sqrt{1-v^{2}/c^{2}} }[/math]

where:

L is the length measured by an observer,

[math]\displaystyle{ L_{0} }[/math] is the length of the object in its rest frame),

v is the relative velocity between the observer and the moving object,

c is the speed of light,

[math]\displaystyle{ {\gamma(v)} }[/math] is the Lorentz factor. This is defined as

[math]\displaystyle{ {\gamma(v)}=\frac1{\sqrt{1-v^{2}/c^{2}}} }[/math]

[6]

Lorentz Force

Lorentz took James Maxwell's equations for a macroscopic phenomena and applied it to microscopic phenomena. Lorentz used the equations to conceive an expression for the force that a charged particle experiences in the presence of a given electric and magnetic fields. [7]

[math]\displaystyle{ F=Q*v \times B }[/math]

Where:

F- force in Newtons

Q- charge in Coulombs

v- velocity of particle in meters/second

B- magnetic field in Telsas

Connectedness

Lorentz's work laid the foundation for Einstein and Einstein stated that Lorentz had been the greatest influence in his life. Einstein would use many of the concepts from Lorentz to create his theory of special relativity.[8] Lorentz force is also used to this day through various applications such as electric motor and the cyclotron. [9]