1. Lord Kelvin

2. Lord Kelvin
Who was “Lord Kelvin”?

3. What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME??
Who was “Lord Kelvin”?
What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME??

4. Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? His first name was NOT “Lord”!!
What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME??
Hints
His first name was NOT “Lord”!!

5. Lord Kelvin Who was “Lord Kelvin”? His first name was NOT “Lord”!!
What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME??
Hints
His first name was NOT “Lord”!!
His last name was NOT “Kelvin”!!

6. Lord Kelvin “Lord Kelvin” was his Who was “Lord Kelvin”?
What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME??
Hints
His first name was NOT “Lord”!!
His last name was NOT “Kelvin”!!
“Lord Kelvin” was his

7. Lord Kelvin “Lord Kelvin” was his British Title NOT his NAME!!
Who was “Lord Kelvin”?
What was “Lord Kelvin’s” NAME??
Hints
His first name was NOT “Lord”!!
His last name was NOT “Kelvin”!!
“Lord Kelvin” was his
British Title
NOT his NAME!!

8. William Thompson (Baron Kelvin of Largs) “Lord Kelvin”
Born June 26th 1824, Belfast, Ireland
Graduated AT AGE 10 from
The University of Glasgow!!
His father was a professor
Earned a BA from Cambridge
Much later, became chair of “natural philosophy” (PHYSICS) at Glasgow.
Died of the flu in 1907, in Scotland.
Got title “Baron Kelvin of Largs” in 1892.
Knighted by Queen Victoria for work on engines.
“Kelvin” was taken from a creek that ran through the Cambridge University campus.
Buried next to Sir Isaac Newton.

9. Lord Kelvin - William Thompson Just some of his many Achievements in Science & Technology
Published 661 scientific papers!
Held 70 patents!
Held the record for the
most academic letters behind his name! (?)
Engineering Contributions:
Supervised the laying of the
first transatlantic cable.
Basic Science Contributions:
Helped Pierre & Marie Curie with the
discovery of radium.
Was the first to make a detailed
analysis of ocean tides.

10. Evolution & Geologic time were impossible!
Kelvin also had many achievements in Optics!
First introduced the word chirality into science.
First to associate an object’s
color with it’s temperature.
His ideas are still used today in
color film & digital cameras.
Calculated the age of the earth from its rate of cooling & decided that
Evolution & Geologic time were impossible!
This led to a public argument with Charles Darwin over evolution & the earth’s age.
More on this some other time!

11. Some Interesting Kelvin Quotes
“When you can measure what you are speaking
about and express it in numbers, you know
something about it; but when you cannot
measure, when you cannot express it in
numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and
unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning
of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your
thoughts, advanced to the stage of science.”

12. Some Interesting Kelvin Quotes
“When you can measure what you are
speaking about and express it in numbers, you
know something about it; but when you
cannot measure, when you cannot express it
in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre
and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the
beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely,
in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science.”
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” (1895)
“I have not the smallest molecule of faith in aerial
navigation other than ballooning...I do not care to be a
member of the Aeronautical Society.” (1896)
“There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now.
All that remains is more precise measurement.” (1900)

13. Lord Kelvin ( )
Kelvin’s Grave
River Kelvin

14. In 1906, Kelvin proposed the “Plum Pudding Model” of the atom.
Negative electrons were embedded into a positively charged spherical cloud.
Equal quantities of (+) and (–) charge distributed uniformly in the atom.
(+) is ~2000X more massive than (–)
Spherical Cloud of
Positive Charge
Electrons
Plum Pudding
Named after a dessert, the plum pudding model portrays the atom as a big ball of positive charge containing small particles with negative charge.

15. Sir William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
(Lord Kelvin)
Kelvin
Temperature Scale

16. Some Items in Science & Technology
Named for Kelvin
Joule–Thomson effect
Thomson effect (thermoelectrics)
Mirror galvanometer
Siphon recorder
Kelvin material
Kelvin water dropper
Kelvin wave
Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism

17. More Items in Science & Technology
Named for Kelvin
Kelvin–Helmholtz luminosity
Kelvin transform
Kelvin's circulation theorem
Kelvin bridge
Kelvin sensing
Kelvin equation
Magnetoresistance
Four-terminal sensing
Coined the term “kinetic energy”

18. “I trust you will avoid the gigantic mistake of alternating current.”
More Interesting Kelvin Quotes
“In science there is only physics;
all the rest is stamp collecting.”
“In physics, you don't have to go around making
trouble for yourself - nature does it for you.”
“Radio has no future. The X-ray is a hoax.”
Writing to Niagara Falls Power Company:
“I trust you will avoid the gigantic
mistake of alternating current.”
[The vector] “has never been of the slightest
use to any creature.”

19. More Interesting Kelvin Quotes science than any man up to his time.”
“Tesla has contributed more to electrical
science than any man up to his time.”
“Do not imagine that mathematics is hard
and crabbed, & repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization
of common sense.”
“Symmetrical equations are good in their place,
but 'vector' is a useless survival, or offshoot
from quaternions, and has never been of the
slightest use to any creature.”

20. More Interesting Kelvin Quotes
“ There cannot be a greater mistake than that of
looking superciliously upon the practical
applications of science. The life and soul of science
is its practical application; and just as the great
advances in mathematics have been made through the
desire of discovering the solution of problems which
were of a highly practical kind in mathematical
science, so in physical science many of the greatest
advances that have been made from the beginning of
the world to the present time have been made in
earnest desire to turn the knowledge of the properties
of matter to some purpose useful to mankind.”