Arthur Lindo Patterson facts for kids

Arthur Lindo Patterson (born July 23, 1902, in Nelson, New Zealand – died November 6, 1966, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an important British scientist. He was a pioneer in a field called X-ray crystallography. This is a way to study the tiny, repeating patterns inside crystals using X-rays.

Arthur Patterson was born in New Zealand, but his family soon moved to Montreal, Canada, and later to London, England. In 1920, he returned to Canada for college. He studied at McGill University in Montreal. He first focused on Math but then switched to Physics. He earned his first degree in 1923 and a master's degree in 1924. For his master's project, he studied how hard X-rays are made when radium particles hit solid materials.

Learning About Crystals

From 1924 to 1926, Arthur Patterson worked in London. He was in the lab of a famous scientist named W. H. Bragg. Here, he learned how to analyze the structure of crystals. This means figuring out how atoms are arranged inside them.

In 1926, Patterson moved to Berlin, Germany. He worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, which later became the Fritz Haber Institute. He used X-ray crystallography to study cellulose fibers. Cellulose is a material found in plant cell walls. While in Berlin, he met many top scientists of his time. These included Albert Einstein and Max Planck.

He returned to McGill University in 1927 and finished his PhD degree in 1928.

His Big Discovery: The Patterson Function

From 1933 to 1946, Patterson was a visiting researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This was a very important time for his work. During these years, he published his most famous idea, which is now called the Patterson function.

The Patterson function is a special mathematical tool. It helps scientists figure out the exact arrangement of atoms inside a crystal. It's especially useful when a crystal has one or more heavy atoms in its structure. This function became a super important way to analyze crystal structures using X-rays.

After his time at MIT, Arthur Patterson taught at Bryn Mawr College from 1936 to 1949. Then, from 1949 until he passed away in 1966, he was a professor at the Institute for Cancer Research. This institute is now known as the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

What He Discovered

Arthur Patterson made several important contributions to science:

• Understanding Particle Size: His work helped explain how the size of tiny particles affects the lines seen in X-ray patterns. This is called "particle-size line broadening."
• The Patterson Function: In 1934, at MIT, he created the Patterson function. This method helps solve crystal structures. It involves adding up mathematical series in two and three dimensions. This helps reveal where atoms are located in a crystal.
• Homometric Structures: He also studied a tricky problem. He showed that sometimes, different arrangements of atoms could create the exact same Patterson function. This means they would look the same when studied with X-rays. These are called homometric structures.

See also

• Patterson function
• Structure factor