Richard C. Tolman

RC Tolman and Albert Einstein (1932)

Richard Chace Tolman (born March 4, 1881 in West Newton , Massachusetts , † September 5, 1948 in Pasadena , California ) was an American theoretical physicist who mainly dealt with physical chemistry , statistical mechanics and the theory of relativity .

Life

Tolman studied chemical engineering at MIT , where he graduated (BA) in 1903 and received his PhD in 1910. In between he was in Berlin in 1904 . He then held positions at the University of California, Berkeley, among others . During the First World War he worked for the government in the development of chemical weapons and from 1919 to 1922 as deputy head (later head) of a research center for nitrogen fixation for explosives and fertilizers.

In 1922 he became professor for mathematical physics and physical chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, where he stayed until his death and was temporarily Dean of the "Graduate School" (whose orientation to current research he determined at Caltech).

He also held high government offices. During World War II, he was Scientific Advisor to General Leslie Groves on the Manhattan Project and Vice President of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), where he was specifically involved in the development of percussion fuses and missiles. After the war he was the main advisor to the US delegate Bernard Baruch at the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission .

In 1922 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1923 to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1932 to the American Philosophical Society .

Tolman was known for his excellent, well-prepared lectures, where he encouraged students to discuss. Linus Pauling is one of his students .

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Tolman wrote from 1909 on the special theory of relativity , where he defined the relativistic mass following Gilbert Newton Lewis 1909/1912 (a modification of the older terms of "longitudinal" and "transversal" used by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1899) and Albert Einstein (1905)) " Dimensions). In 1912 he also investigated the emission theory as an alternative to the SRT, but later rejected it.

Tolman proved that electrons are the carriers of the electrical charge in the flow of electricity in metals and determined their mass in the Tolman experiment (1916) by measuring the voltages caused by the inertia of the electrons in accelerated metals.

Above all, he was a specialist in statistical mechanics, about which he wrote a long authoritative textbook (1927 against the background of the older quantum theory, in 1938 completely revised with full consideration of quantum mechanics ) and which he also applied to relativistic systems and cosmology. In 1934, for example, he showed that blackbody radiation cools down in an expanding universe, but remains thermal. His investigation of oscillating universes led to the temporary rejection of these theories, which have been discussed again and again since then. His Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology was also a well-known textbook on general relativity.

Others

Tolman made the unsuccessful suggestion that the time it takes light to travel the distance of a femtometer should be called Jiffy .

The Tolman Award is named after Richard C. Tolman and is presented annually by the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society for important work in the field of chemistry .

Fonts (selection)

The Principles of Statistical Mechanics. Dover, New York 1979, first 1938, ISBN 0-486-63896-0 .
Relativity Thermodynamics and Cosmology. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1934.

Web links

John G. Kirkwood, Oliver R. Wulf, PS Epstein: Richard Chace Tolman 1881-1948 . In: National Academy of Sciences (Ed.): Biographical Memoirs . 1952 (English, nasonline.org [PDF]).
Richard C. Tolman. In: Physics History Network. American Institute of Physics
Kenneth Trueblood: About Richard C. Tolman. In: Tolman Award. scalacs.org (English).; accessed on November 5, 2018
Vannevar Bush : Richard Chace Tolman, 1881-1948 . In: Science . tape 109 , no. 2819 , 1949, pp. 20–21 , doi : 10.1126 / science.109.2819.20 (English).
Guide to the Papers of Richard Chase Tolman. Online Archive of California(overview of the estate (no online access), short biography).; accessed on November 5, 2018
Richard C. Tolman - Publications. In: academictree.org. Retrieved November 5, 2018(List of literature and overview of his teachers and students).

Individual evidence

↑ Tolman, R .: The mass of a moving body . In: Philosophical Magazine . tape 23 , 1912, pp. 375-380 .
^ Tolman, RC: Some Emission Theories of Light . In: Physical Review . tape 35 , 1912, pp. 136-143 .
^ Edward Harrison: Cosmology: The Science of the Universe . Cambridge University Press, March 16, 2000, ISBN 978-1-139-64345-0 , p. 474.

personal data
SURNAME	Tolman, Richard C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tolman, Richard Chace (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 4, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH	West Newton , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	September 5, 1948
Place of death	Pasadena, California

[1] Tolman, R .: The mass of a moving body . In: Philosophical Magazine . tape 23 , 1912, pp. 375-380 .

[2] Tolman, RC: Some Emission Theories of Light . In: Physical Review . tape 35 , 1912, pp. 136-143 .

[Harrison2000-3] Edward Harrison: Cosmology: The Science of the Universe . Cambridge University Press, March 16, 2000, ISBN 978-1-139-64345-0 , p. 474.