George Hadley facts for kids

George Hadley (born February 12, 1685 – died June 28, 1768) was an English lawyer. He was also a scientist who studied weather, known as an amateur meteorologist. Hadley is famous for explaining how trade winds work. This explanation is now called Hadley circulation in his honor.

Understanding trade winds was very important back then. They helped European sailing ships reach North America. Hadley was curious why winds that should blow straight north actually had a strong westerly flow. He set out to solve this mystery.

About George Hadley's Life

Early Years and Family

George Hadley was born in London, England. His father, also named George Hadley, was a important local official. George had a normal childhood. His older brother, John Hadley (1682–1744), was more famous early on. John invented the octant, which was an early version of the sextant used for navigation. George, John, and their other brother Henry even built working Newtonian telescopes together.

Education and Science Work

George Hadley went to Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1700. In 1701, he joined Lincoln's Inn, a place where lawyers are trained. His father bought him a place to work there. He became a lawyer in 1709. However, he was more interested in science and mechanics than in law.

For seven years, Hadley was in charge of studying weather records. These records were sent to the Royal Society from scientists around the world. He tried to compare the information from different temperature and pressure scales. He also tried to find general patterns in the weather over time. He wrote about his findings twice in a science journal called the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

His Big Idea About Winds

George Hadley became a member of the Royal Society on February 20, 1735. A few months later, he published a short paper. In this paper, he explained his theory about the trade winds. His idea was not widely known at first. Other scientists, like John Dalton, later came up with similar ideas on their own. Eventually, Hadley's idea became known as "Hadley's principle."

Before Hadley, another scientist named Edmond Halley had tried to explain trade winds in 1686. Halley's theory was popular for a long time. George Hadley's version was better because it recognized that the Earth's rotation affects the direction of moving air. This important detail was missing from Halley's idea.

Later, in the 1800s, scientists found that Hadley's theory also had a small flaw. It assumed that air kept its straight-line speed (linear momentum) as it moved across different latitudes. However, because the air is always moving around the Earth's axis, it's actually its spinning speed (angular momentum) that stays the same. This causes an effect called the Coriolis effect. Even with this small difference, Hadley's work was a big step forward in understanding Earth's weather.

Later Life and Death

George Hadley never married. Later in his life, he left London. He lived for a while with a nephew, probably his brother John's son, in East Barnet. He spent most of his final years in Flitton, Bedfordshire. Another nephew, Hadley Cox, who was a vicar (a type of priest), lived there.

Hadley died in Flitton on June 28, 1768, when he was 83 years old. He was buried in the church there. Another one of his nephews, also named John Hadley, became a member of the Royal Society too.

How George Hadley is Remembered

The Met Office Hadley Centre, a major climate research center in the UK, is named in his honor. A crater on Mars was also named after him.

See also

In Spanish: George Hadley para niños

• Hadley cell