Mathematician:George Paget Thomson

Mathematician

English physicist known for his discovery of the wave properties of the electron by electron diffraction.

Son of Joseph John Thomson.

Nationality

British

History

• Born: 3 May 1892 in Cambridge, England
• Died: 10 September 1975 in Cambridge, England

Publications

• 1927: Diffraction of Cathode Rays by a Thin Film

Notable Quotes

It is difficult for a young physicist ... to realize the state of our science in the early 1920's ... It was not just that the old theories of light and mechanics had failed. On the contrary. You could say that they had succeeded in regions to which they could hardly have been expected to apply, but they succeeded erratically ... And over the whole subject brooded the mysterious figure of $h$.

-- 1961: Symposium on the History of Modern Physics

-- Epigraph to 1978: A.P. French and Edwin F. Taylor: An Introduction to Quantum Physics

Sources

• 1978: A.P. French and Edwin F. Taylor: An Introduction to Quantum Physics ... (previous) ... (next): Epigraph