Arthur Eddington Facts
Arthur Eddington Facts
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| Interesting Arthur Eddington Facts: |
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| Eddington was the son of Quakers from Westmorland, England, and his father died when Eddington was two, leaving his mother with little support. |
| As a result, Eddington was mostly educated at home by his mother before entering a prep school for his last three years, Brynmelyn School. |
| He was a good student, and earned a scholarship to Owens College. |
| He quickly focused his studies on physics, but also devoted himself to mathematics later on. |
| Eddington received several scholarships as a result of his aptitude. |
| He received both a bachelor's and a Master's degree before moving to Cavendish Laboratory to conduct research on thermionic emissions. |
| When he was nominated to the post of chief assistant to the Royal Greenwich Observatory's Astronomer Royal, he created a new method for gathering statistical evidence based on what appeared to be the drift between two stars. |
| This earned him the Smith's Prize that same year, 1907, which also included a fellowship to Trinity College at Cambridge where he'd earned his bachelor's. |
| When Charles Darwin's son George died, leaving a vacancy as the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, Eddington was awarded the position. |
| When the Lowndean chair professor also died that same year, Eddington was named the head of the whole Cambridge Observatory. |
| Eddington's research into the interior of stars became the basis for modern understanding of of stellar processes, specifically his work on Cepheid variables. |
| His work helped scientists develop measurable processes for determining the temperature, pressure, and density at all of the different points inside a star. |
| Eddington suffered controversial scrutiny when England entered World War I; as a Quaker and a pacifist, he called on members of the scientific community to maintain their friendships and working relationships with German scientists, regardless of political differences. |
| This was an unpopular opinion, only made worse when Eddington was drafted and refused to fight under recognized conscientious objector status. While he was legally allowed to register as a CO, it was considered unpatriotic and cowardly by the public. |
| By 1918, Eddington was nearly facing a prison sentence for refusing to fight, and only the intervention of high-profile members of the scientific community who vouched for his longtime Quaker beliefs prevented him from going to jail. |
| Some of Eddington's most important contributions stem from his support for Einstein's theory of relativity, which was not widely accepted when first introduced. |
| He is also responsible for our understanding of the behavior of light from other stars that is bent by the gravitational pull of the sun, a phenomenon that is only visible during solar eclipses. |
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