Lord Rayleigh Biography

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, was an English physicist noted for his discovery of the Argon gas, one of the rare gases of the atmosphere. Rayleigh was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904 for this achievement. He shared the prize with chemist William Ramsay. He is also the famous for his discovery of ‘Rayleigh scattering’ which explains why the sky is blue. He also predicted about the surface waves, a phenomenon which is now named after him: ‘Rayleigh waves’. With hi patient experiments, he established the standards of resistance, current and electromotive force. Later in his life, he focused on electric and magnetic problems. Lord Rayleigh was a brilliant instructor. He supervised a practical instruction class in experimental physics and increased its roll-strength of five or six students to an advanced school of seventy physicists. He had a great sense of literary style and every paper he wrote was precise and simple in diction. He was a member of the House of Lords, but never allowed politics to interfere with science. He enjoyed tennis, music, travelling, and photography.