Abstract
At about the time Linus Pauling was just beginning to think about the nature of the chemical bond, another scientist, Arthur Compton, was clearing away more mysteries surrounding the new science of quantum mechanics. In his classic paper, “A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-rays by Light Elements,”1 Compton points out that “. . . J. J. Thomson’s classical theory of the scattering of X-rays, though supported by the early experiments of Barkla and others, has been found incapable of explaining many of the more recent experiments.” (The experiments were those Compton himself had carried out. According to his findings, when X rays impinged on the surface of a crystal, the crystal reflected them at a lower frequency than they had when they first hit the crystal. This would be like visible light of one color hitting a mirror, and then being reflected as a different color.)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Endnotes
The Physical Review, Vol. 21, 1923.
According to Comp ton in a letter of August 11, 1949, to Samuel Glasstone, the author of Sourcebook on Atomic Energy, G. N. Lewis of the University of California first used the word “photon” to describe a quantum of energy emitted by one atom and absorbed by another; see Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjone Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 43.
Katherine Russell Sopka, Quantum Physics in America (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1988), Vol. 10, p. 91.
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 107.
W. H. Bragg, letter to Nature, May 27,1915; see also A. H. Compton, “A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-rays by Light Elements,” The Physical Review, May 1923, Vol. 21, No. 5.
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 144.
See E. U. Condon, “60 Years of Quantum Mechanics,” Physics Today, October 1962.
John Slater to Linus Pauling, personal letter, December 16, 1953.
See Daniel J. Kevles, The Physicists (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1978), p. 240.
Nathan Reingold, “Physics and Engineering in the United States, 1945–1965, A Study of Pride and Prejudice,” in The Michelson Era in American Science: 1870–1930 (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1988), p. 295.
Katherine Russell Sopka, Quantum Physics in America (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1988), Vol. 10, p. 147.
A. Russo and M. De Maria, “Cosmic Ray Romancing: The Discovery of the Latitude Effect and the Compton-Millikan Controversy,” in Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1986), pp. 211–216.
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 43.
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 86.
A. Russo and M. De Maria, “Cosmic Ray Romancing: The Discovery of the Latitude Effect and the Compton-Millikan Controversy,” in Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1986), pp. 211–216.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, to his brother Frank, personal letter, June 4, 1939.
Silvan S. Schweber, “Shelter Island, Pocono, and Oldstone: The Emergence of American Quantum Electrodynamics after World War H,” Osiris, Vol. 2, 1986.
Laurie M. Brown and Lillian Hoddeson, “The Birth of Elementary Particle Physics” Physics Today, April 1982; see also Robert Marshak, “The Multiplicity of Particles”, as reprinted in Scientific American Reader (Simon & Schuster, New York, 1953).
Laurie M. Brown and Lillian Hoddeson, “The Birth of Elementary Particle Physics,” Physics Today, April 1982.
G. Lemaitre, The Primeval Atom, Betty Korff and Serge Korff, translators, 1950.
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 430.
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnston, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967), p. 439.
Willard Libby to Secretary of Commerce Lewis Strauss, personal letter, November 25 (from the files of the AEC).
Arthur Holly Compton, The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton, Marjorie Johnson, editor (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1967).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Anthony Serafini
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Serafini, A. (1993). Arthur Compton and “Compton Scattering”. In: Legends in Their Own Time. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6090-0_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6090-0_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-44460-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6090-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive