Paul Drude

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Paul Drude

Paul Karl Ludwig Drude (born July 12, 1863 in Braunschweig , † July 5, 1906 in Berlin ) was a German physicist .

life and work

Paul Drude was the son of the Brunswick doctor Carl Drude and half-brother of the botanist Oscar Drude . He first studied mathematics in Göttingen , Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin , but then switched to physics under the influence of Woldemar Voigt . Drude wrote his dissertation with Voigt in 1887 with the title On the reflection and refraction of light at the border of absorbing crystals . 1890 habilitation Drude himself, in 1894 he became an associate professor in Leipzig ; in the same year he married Emilie Regelsberger, daughter of a Göttingen lawyer. In 1900 he became editor of the Annalen der Physik , the most important physical journal at the time. From 1900 to 1905 he was full professor of physics at the University of Gießen , and in 1905 he was appointed director of the Physics Institute at the University of Berlin. One week after being admitted to the Prussian Academy of Sciences , Drude shot himself for unexplained reasons. He left a wife and four children.

Drude's scientific work began with theoretical as well as experimental investigations into the optical properties of crystals and the nature of light itself. While Voigt was still completely entangled in mechanistic, ether- based ideas about the propagation of light, Drude dealt with Maxwell's new electromagnetic theory . First, he found that both theories led to the same differential equations , so from a purely practical standpoint it didn't matter which theory was preferred. In this phase of his work he wrote his first book, Physics of Aether on an Electromagnetic Basis (1894). But since many questions could be more easily investigated by means of the electromagnetic theory, Drude gradually developed into one of her followers. He also hoped to use electromagnetic theory to explain optical and electrical properties of substances together as a result of the interaction of electromagnetic fields with the electrical charges contained in the substances.

In Leipzig, Drude compared the conductivity , absorption capacity (with respect to centimeter waves ) and dielectric properties of numerous solutions in extensive series of tests ; in many cases he found a far higher absorption capacity than would have been expected according to the conductivity. He was able to identify selective absorption by OH groups ( hydroxyl groups ) in the molecules contained in the solution as the cause - with this he had discovered a spectroscopic method for the detection of OH groups. In 1900 he published his second book, the Textbook of Optics , which appeared in English translation two years later.

In Giessen, Drude developed a theory of electrons in metals (see Drude theory ), which he modeled as "electron gas" using terms from classical thermodynamics ; this work was done in parallel with similar efforts on the part of Lorentz , Thomson, and Rieckes . By using this theory to study electrical and thermal conductivity, he found that at a given temperature, the ratio of electrical and thermal conductivity should be the same for all metals. This prediction agreed roughly, if not exactly, with the experimental results. Other similar partial successes showed that the theory correctly captured at least some aspects of electricity , which ultimately paved the way for the modern theory of the electron.

His measurements with polarized light made a major contribution to the development of this theory, which is why he is now widely regarded as the inventor of ellipsometry .

In 1905 Drude was appointed full professor and institute director at the physical institute of the Friedrich Wilhelm University. In the same year (April 27) he was proposed as a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He gave his inaugural address there on June 28, 1906 (7 days before his death by suicide).

It is occasionally speculated whether this speech contains any evidence of problems that may have driven him to commit suicide. In any case, he complains how hectic the natural sciences became in the boom phase at the turn of the century:

“Just as it is the greatest joy to live at such a time of the most intensive upswing in one's own scientific discipline, when there is an overabundance of tasks that are open to processing, it nevertheless provokes a haste in scientific research, which of the contemplative calm, with which a few decades ago some scholars were able to let their problems in the laboratory, at the desk and in the great outdoors, is diametrically opposed, [...] "

- Paul Drude

Others

Were named after Paul Drude

literature

  • Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries . Hanover 1996, p. 147f
  • Max Planck: Paul Drude . Commemorative speech given at the meeting of the German Physical Society on November 30, 1906. In: Negotiations of the German Physical Society , Volume VIII, No. 23, 599–639 (1906).
  • Franz Richarz, Walter König : In memory of Paul Drude. Two speeches. Memorial ceremony for Paul Drude in the Physics Institute of the University of Gießen organized by the Gießen-Marburg Physics Colloquium on July 23, 1906. With a picture and a list of Drude's scientific work . Töpelmann, Giessen 1906 ( digitized version ).
  • F. Kiebitz: Paul Drude . In: Naturwissenschaftl. Rundschau , 21 (32), 1906, pp. 413-415.
  • Helmut Rechenberg, Gerald Wiemers: Paul Drude (1863–1906) - “Icarus” of physics at the turn of the 20th century . In: Naturwissenschaftl. Rundschau , 59 (12), 2006, pp. 651-653, ISSN  0028-1050
  • Friedrich Stier:  Drude, Paul Karl Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 138 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • M. Dressel, K. Laßman, M. Scheffler: Drude's way to solid state physics . The bridge from physical optics to the electrodynamics of solids. In: Physics Journal . tape 05 , no. 07 , 2006, p. 41–46 ( pro-physik.de [PDF]).

Web links

Commons : Paul Drude  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Paul Drude  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Drude: To the electron theory of metals. In: Ostwald's classic of the exact sciences. Volume 298. Deutsch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-8171-3298-0 .
  2. ↑ Paul Drude: To the electron theory of metals. In: Ostwald's classic of the exact sciences. Volume 298. Deutsch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-8171-3298-0 , pp. 56–57 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ See the association's website .
personal data
SURNAME Drude, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Drude, Paul Karl Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH July 5, 1906
Place of death Berlin