Hendrik Lorenz

Hendrik Anton Lorentz (Dutch: Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, July 18, 1853 - February 4, 1928), also translated as Lorentz, was a Dutch physicist. He won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Peter Zeeman, and was elected as an academician of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1881. He also served as a foreign academician of many national academies of sciences. Lorenz is world-famous for his research work in the fields of electromagnetism and optics. He obtained the classical electron theory through concepts such as continuous electromagnetic fields and discrete electrons in matter. This theory can be used in many problems: such as the force of electromagnetic fields on moving charged particles (Lorentz force), the relationship between the refractive index of a medium and its density (Lorentz-Lorentz equation), the theory of light dispersion, the explanation of some magnetic phenomena (such as the Zeeman effect), and some properties of metals. On the basis of electron theory, he also developed electrodynamics in moving media, including proposing the hypothesis that an object will undergo length contraction in its direction of motion (Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction), introducing the concept of "local time", obtaining the relationship between mass and velocity, and constructing a system of equations expressing the coordinate and time relationships between different inertial systems (Lorentz transformation). Lorenz's research work later became the basis of special relativity and quantum physics. In addition, Lorenz also made achievements in thermodynamics, molecular kinetic theory, general relativity and thermal radiation theory.