Lord+Kelvin-Abbey+Huguley

= Lord Kelvin = "When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery."

William Thomson, or Lord Kelvin was a major figure in the 19th century science and one of many of scientists who shaped physics in the 20th century. Kelvin was also a successful business man. He published over 600 scientific papers and owned 70 patents before he died. Kelvin was born in Belfast in 1824 where his father taught mathematics. In 1832 the family moved to Glasgow when his dad James was appointed Professor of Mathematics at Glasgow University. He was made for high scientific achievement from his earliest days. Educated by his father, Kelvin entered Glasgow University at the age of 10. He moved on to Cambridge University where he graduated in 1845 at the age of 21. Following successful teachings by his father, he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University at the age of 22, a position he held until he retired 53 years later in 1899. Kelvin introduced the idea of the lecture-demonstration. He illustrated the law of conservation of momentum by firing a bullet into a wooden pendulum using an old muzzle-loader rifle. His scientific work was vast and deep. He played a major role in developing the second law of thermodynamics, one of the most fundamental laws in physics. He introduced a new scale of absolute temperature measured in units called kelvins, each of the same size as the degree celcius. Absolute zero on the kelvin scale equals minus 273 degrees celcius and is the temperature at which atoms cease to move about. He made geophysical determinations of the age of the earth. Kelvin viewed all physical change as energy related phenomena. He was a great with theories and he brought together areas in physics such as heat, thermodynamics, mechanics, magnetism, electricity and hydrodynamics. This synthesis allowed 20th century physics to make the next great leap forward. Kelvin was convinced that all forms of energy were interrelated – heat, light, electrical, magnetic, mechanical – and he believed that the various theories dealing with matter and energy were moving towards a large unified theory. Thermodynamics is the study of energy flow and transformation. Kelvin saw that the conversion of one form of energy into another is never perfectly efficient; some energy is always lost as heat and is unavailable to do useful work. Lord Kelvin died in 1907 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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