= John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
{c}
{title2=1842–1919}
{wiki}
= John William Strutt
{c}
{synonym}
= Lord Rayleigh
{c}
{synonym}
A <physicist> whose research joined <waves>, <optics>, <acoustics> and precise measurement. He maintained a laboratory at Terling and served as Cavendish professor of experimental <physics> from 1879 to 1884. At Cambridge he developed laboratory courses; later he donated his Nobel award proceeds toward a Cavendish laboratory extension.<John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) by John Joseph O'Connor and Edmund Frederick Robertson>[O'Connor and Robertson, biography: Terling laboratory; Cavendish professorship and laboratory courses; donation of Nobel proceeds]{ref}
The <Rayleigh-Ramsay argon density experiment>, pursued with <William Ramsay>, connects a small discrepancy in gas weighing to chemical separation. Its lesson is practical: agreement within one preparation method does not ensure that a second method produces the same <chemical substance>. The <gas density> model explains how composition and filling conditions both affect the readout.
\Image[https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Rayleigh/Rayleigh_3.jpeg]
{title=Lord Rayleigh, portrait from the MacTutor picture collection}
{width=240}
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