John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (12 November 1842 – 30 June 1919) was an English physicist who (with William Ramsay) discovered the element argon, an achievement that earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904. He also discovered the phenomenon now called Rayleigh scattering and predicted the existence of the surface waves now known as Rayleigh waves.

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Biography

Strutt was born in Langford Grove, Essex and in his early years suffered frailty and poor health.

He went to Harrow School and began studying mathematics at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, in 1861. In 1865, he obtained his BA (Senior Wrangler and 1st Smith's prize) and MA in 1868. He was subsequently elected to a Fellowship of Trinity. He held the post until his marriage to Evelyn Balfour, daughter of James Maitland Balfour in 1871. He had three sons with her.

In 1873 his father, John Strutt, 2nd Baron Rayleigh died, and he inherited the Barony of Rayleigh.

He was the second Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge, following James Clerk Maxwell in this position from 1879 to 1884. He first described dynamic soaring by seabirds in 1883 in the British journal Nature.

Approximately 1900 Lord Rayleigh developed the Duplex (combination of two) Theory (Human sound localization using two binaural cues). Interaural time delay (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) (assuming a spherical head with no external pinnae). Humans perceive sound objects spatially, using the difference in the phase (time delay) of the sound and the difference in amplitude (level) between the two ears, in a similar way that stereoscopic sight provides depth perception. Also called two primary cues for azimuth (horizontal location) but possibly its two primary cues for a 3 dimensional bearing. For example when you hear a seagull call out you can determine roughly x y and z location of the sound. Although Pinnae reflections are considered a main cue for vertical localisation.

Lord Rayleigh was elected to Fellow of the Royal Society on June 12, 1873 and was elected president of the Royal Society between 1905 and 1908.

Lord Rayleigh died on June 30, 1919 in Witham, Essex.

Legacy

Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honor as well as a type of surface wave known as a Rayleigh wave. The asteroid 22740 Rayleigh was named in his honour on 1 June 2007.†

Prizes

• Royal Medal (1882)
• Matteucci Medal (1894)
• Copley Medal (1899)
• Nobel Prize for Physics (1904)
• Rumford Medal (1920)

See also

• Rayleigh criterion
• Rayleigh fading
• Rayleigh number
• Rayleigh quotient
• Rayleigh scattering
• Rayleigh (unit) (named after his son)
• Rayleigh waves
• Rayleigh-Jeans law
• Rayleigh distribution
• Rayleigh-Taylor instability
• Plateau-Rayleigh instability
• Rayleigh Medal

Works by Lord Rayleigh

• The theory of sound Vol. I (London : Macmillan, 1877) PDF copy from Bibliothèque Nationale de France
• The theory of sound Vol. II (London : Macmillan, 1877) PDF copy from Bibliothèque Nationale de France
• The Becquerel rays and the properties of radium (London, E. Arnold, 1904)
• Scientific papers (Vol. 2: 1881-1887) (Cambridge : University Press, 1899-1920)
• Scientific papers (Vol. 3: 1887-1892) (Cambridge : University Press, 1899-1920)
• Scientific papers (Vol. 4: 1892-1901) (Cambridge : University Press, 1899-1920)
• Scientific papers (Vol. 5: 1902-1910) (Cambridge : University Press, 1899-1920)
• Scientific papers (Vol. 6: 1911-1919) (Cambridge : University Press, 1899-1920) PDF/DjVu from Internet Archive

References and further reading

• Nobel website bio of Rayleigh
• About John William Strutt
• O'Connor, John J; Edmund F. Robertson "John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive.