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Kelvin also wrote under the pseudonym "P. Q. R." William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907 [ 7 ]) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. [ 8 ][ 9 ] Born in Belfast, he was the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research ...
Kelvin equation. The Kelvin equation describes the change in vapour pressure due to a curved liquid–vapor interface, such as the surface of a droplet. The vapor pressure at a convex curved surface is higher than that at a flat surface. The Kelvin equation is dependent upon thermodynamic principles and does not allude to special properties of ...
That same year, James Prescott Joule suggested to Thomson that the true formula for Carnot's function was [20] = +, where is "the mechanical equivalent of a unit of heat", [21] now referred to as the specific heat capacity of water, approximately 771.8 foot-pounds force per degree Fahrenheit per pound (4,153 J/K/kg). [22]
The vortex theory of the atom was a 19th-century attempt by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) to explain why the atoms recently discovered by chemists came in only relatively few varieties but in very great numbers of each kind. Based on the idea of stable, knotted vortices in the ether or aether, it contributed an important mathematical legacy.
In 1848, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (commonly known as Lord Kelvin) established the concept of absolute zero, the temperature at which all molecular motion ceases. In 1849, Louis Pasteur discovered that the racemic form of tartaric acid is a mixture of the levorotatory and dextrotatory forms, thus clarifying the nature of optical ...
The product of the mass of a body into the square of its velocity may properly be termed its energy. [4] Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis described "kinetic energy" in 1829 in its modern sense, and in 1853, William Rankine coined the term " potential energy." It was argued for some years whether energy was a substance (the caloric) or merely a physical ...
Continuum mechanics. Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes) is an experimental gas law that describes how gases tend to expand when heated. A modern statement of Charles's law is: When the pressure on a sample of a dry gas is held constant, the Kelvin temperature and the volume will be in direct proportion.
The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (after Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz) is a fluid instability that occurs when there is velocity shear in a single continuous fluid or a velocity difference across the interface between two fluids. Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities are visible in the atmospheres of planets and moons, such as in cloud ...