Compton, Arthur Holly (1892-1962)


Arthur Compton was the American physicist who discovered the effect named after him and, in consequence, confirmed the particle nature of electromagnetic radiation. He began studying X-rays in the early 1920s and in 1923, while he was studying at the University of Chicago, he observed that the wavelength of X-rays increased when they are scattered by electrons (the Compton effect). He demonstrated that, in this case, X-rays behave as particles and loose some of their energy when colliding with electrons, resulting in an increase in wavelength and a decrease in frequency. This was the first clear proof that radiation quanta can behave as particles, each with a definite value of energy and momentum. During the Second World War he played an important role in the Manhattan atomic bomb project. His work was recognized in 1927 when he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Charles Wilson, the inventor of the cloud chamber, which Compton had often used in his research. Compton was also a noted philosopher and deeply religious during the building of the first nuclear reactor, he often read to his fellow physicists from the Bible.


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