Leigh Page (October 13, 1884 – September 14, 1952) was an American theoretical physicist. Chairman of Mathematical Physics at the Sloane Physics Laboratory of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

for over three decades, he is the namesake of Yale's Leigh Page Prize Lectures.

Biography

Page was born October 13, 1884, in

South Orange, New Jersey South Orange is a historic suburban Village (New Jersey), village located in Essex County, New Jersey. It was formally known as the Township of South Orange Village from October 1978 until April 25, 2024. As of the 2020 United States census, ...

to Edward Day Page and Cornelia Lee. He came to the Sheffield Scientific School at

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

in 1909 as an assistant professor in drawing and graduate student under Henry Andrews Bumstead. He switched to physics in 1912, was appointed assistant professor of physics in 1916. He published a survey of "A Century's Progress in Physics" in 1918, and became professor of

mathematical physics Mathematical physics is the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the de ...

in 1922, where he remained until his death in 1952. Devoting most of his time to teaching, Page conducted research and wrote several textbooks, which appeared in various editions, often with the assistance of colleague Norman I. Adams. The books ''Electrodynamics'' and ''Introduction to Theoretical Physics'' "have had a profound influence on the development of many of America's leading mathematical physicists." In 1967

sponsored the first of the Leigh Page Prize Lectures, an honor since bestowed on several

Nobel laureates The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

and other notable

physicists A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Scientific contributions

As a physics educator, Leigh Page was an advocate of the

relativistic electromagnetism Relativistic electromagnetism is a physical phenomenon explained in electromagnetic field theory due to Coulomb's law and Lorentz transformations. Electromechanics After Maxwell proposed the differential equation model of the electromagneti ...

approach to the field equations. It is common for lecturers to present the

Lorentz covariance In relativistic physics, Lorentz symmetry or Lorentz invariance, named after the Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz, is an equivalence of observation or observational symmetry due to special relativity implying that the laws of physics stay the same ...

of these equations, but Page said :As the dependence of electromagnetism on the relativity principle is far more intimate than is suggested by this covariance, it has seemed more logical to derive the electrodynamic equations directly from this principle. He derived a complete

electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...

theory, including

Maxwell's equations Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, Electrical network, electr ...

, from only

Coulomb's law Coulomb's inverse-square law, or simply Coulomb's law, is an experimental scientific law, law of physics that calculates the amount of force (physics), force between two electric charge, electrically charged particles at rest. This electric for ...

and the

Lorentz transformation In physics, the Lorentz transformations are a six-parameter family of Linear transformation, linear coordinate transformation, transformations from a Frame of Reference, coordinate frame in spacetime to another frame that moves at a constant vel ...

. Page proposed an emission theory that successfully explained

blackbody radiation Black-body radiation is the thermal electromagnetic radiation within, or surrounding, a body in thermodynamic equilibrium with its environment, emitted by a black body (an idealized opaque, non-reflective body). It has a specific continuous spectr ...

and other phenomena in electrodynamic terms, but was eventually abandoned in favor of later theories of

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

. He reported on the

photoelectric effect The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physi ...

in 1913. The theory of relativity generally concerns

inertial frames In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called an inertial space or a Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference in which objects exhibit inertia: they remain at rest or in uniform motion relative ...

of reference while students of dynamics must consider

acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the Rate (mathematics), rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are Euclidean vector, vector ...

s due to

force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

. A frame of reference under constant acceleration is sometimes described as in

hyperbolic motion In geometry, hyperbolic motions are isometric automorphisms of a hyperbolic space. Under composition of mappings, the hyperbolic motions form a continuous group. This group is said to characterize the hyperbolic space. Such an approach to geometr ...

. In 1936 Page and Adams presented in

Physical Review ''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal was established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the Ame ...

their analysis of constantly accelerating frames as a "new relativity".

Books

* 1922
An Introduction to Electrodynamics from the Standpoint of Electron Theory
D. Van Nostrand Co., link from

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. * 1928: (with N.I. Adams) ''Introduction to Theoretical Physics'', D. Van Nostrand Co. * 1931, 49, 58: (with N.I. Adams
Principles of Electricity, 3rd edition
D. Van Nostrand Co., link from

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

. * 1940: (with N.I. Adams)
Electrodynamics
', D. Van Nostrand Co., link from Internet Archive

References

External links

Leigh Page Prize Lectures
from department of physics,

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Leigh 20th-century American physicists American particle physicists American quantum physicists Yale University faculty People from South Orange, New Jersey 1884 births 1952 deaths American theoretical physicists American textbook writers Yale University alumni