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Joined 2026-09-21 Message
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-31
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.[ref]
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
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.
Portrait of John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
. Nobel Foundation; Wellcome Images reproduction, as credited on the File; original photographer unspecified. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; the File also carries an EU anonymous-work public-domain claim., via Wikimedia Commons. Source.