Pieter Zeeman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Pieter Zeeman
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| Born | 25 May 1865 Zonnemaire, Netherlands
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| Died | 9 October 1943 (aged 78) Amsterdam, Netherlands
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| Nationality | Netherlands |
| Alma mater | University of Leiden |
| Known for | Zeeman effect |
| Awards | Nobel Prize for Physics (1902) Matteucci Medal (1912) Henry Draper Medal (1921) ForMemRS (1921) Rumford Medal (1922) Franklin Medal (1925) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Doctoral advisor | Heike Kamerlingh Onnes |
Pieter Zeeman (born May 25, 1865 – died October 9, 1943) was a Dutch physicist. In 1902, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He shared it with Hendrik Lorentz for discovering and explaining the Zeeman effect.
Contents
Early Life and School Days
Pieter Zeeman was born in Zonnemaire, a small town in the Netherlands. His father was a minister.
Pieter was interested in physics from a young age. In 1883, the northern lights (aurora borealis) could be seen in the Netherlands. Pieter was still in high school then. He drew and described the aurora and sent it to a science magazine called Nature. The magazine published his work and praised his careful observations.
After high school in 1883, Zeeman went to Delft. He studied classical languages, which he needed to get into university. In Delft, he met Heike Kamerlingh Onnes. Onnes later became his university advisor.
University and First Discoveries
Zeeman studied physics at the University of Leiden. His teachers included Kamerlingh Onnes and Hendrik Lorentz. In 1890, even before finishing his main university project, he became Lorentz's assistant. This allowed him to help with research on the Kerr effect. This effect is about how light reflects off a magnetized surface.
In 1893, he finished his main project on the Kerr effect. After that, he spent six months at an institute in Strasbourg. In 1895, Zeeman returned to Leiden to teach math and physics. He married Johanna Elisabeth Lebret, and they had three daughters and one son.
In 1896, Zeeman made a very important discovery. He measured how light lines split apart in a strong magnetic field. He found that when a light source was placed in a magnetic field, its light split into several parts. This discovery is now known as the Zeeman effect.
Kamerlingh Onnes told Lorentz about Zeeman's findings. The very next Monday, Lorentz met with Zeeman. Lorentz gave him an explanation for the effect. His explanation was based on his own theory of electromagnetic radiation.
This discovery was very important for science. It proved Lorentz's ideas about how light behaves in a magnetic field. It also showed that the tiny particles making light were negatively charged. These particles were much lighter than a hydrogen atom. This was a big step, even before Thomson discovered the electron. The Zeeman effect became a key tool for understanding the structure of the atom.
Professor in Amsterdam
Soon after his discovery, Zeeman was offered a teaching job in Amsterdam. In 1900, he became a professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam. In 1902, he and Lorentz won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the Zeeman effect. Five years later, in 1908, he became the director of the Physics Institute in Amsterdam.
A new laboratory was built in 1923, which allowed Zeeman to keep studying the Zeeman effect. This lab was renamed the Zeeman Laboratory in 1940. For the rest of his career, he continued to research how light and magnets interact. He also studied how light travels through moving materials. This research was important for understanding special relativity, a theory developed by Einstein. Later in his life, he became interested in mass spectrometry, which is a way to measure the mass of atoms and molecules.
Pieter Zeeman died on October 9, 1943, in Amsterdam. He was buried in Haarlem.
Images for kids
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Portrait of Pieter Zeeman by Jan Veth, 1925.
See also
In Spanish: Pieter Zeeman para niños
