Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Arthur Eddington

Arthur Stanley Eddington.jpg Photo by George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Arthur Eddington

He was born on December 22, 1882, to Arthur Henry Eddington and Sarah Ann Shout in Kendal, Westmorland, England. His father was a Quaker Training College, Lancashire teacher, and later became the headmaster of Stramongate School in Kendal. Arthur Eddington was a mathematician, physicist, and English astronomer. Additionally, he was a philosopher of science, moreover, a populariser of science. His name has been in the honored heroes of the luminosity of stars and radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object. He discovered the mechanism of nuclear fusion processes in stars. The has an academic paper called The Internal Constitution of the Stars, he discover that stars were composed of hydrogen and not thermonuclear. His knowledge was a clarification that stars were stars a combination of light elements that created heavy elements. In actual fact, he ensured that it was clear that ordinary stars contain far more than 5% of hydrogen.

1. He Discovered the Mechanism of Nuclear Fusion in the Stars

Portrait of Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944), Astronomer (2575160361).jpg Photo by Smithsonian Institution from United States – Wikimedia Commons

Eddington was the first to show that stellar energy was a mystery. He discovered that the source was a fusion of hydrogen into helium. Further, he illustrated the liberating enormous energy according to Einstein’s equation E = mc² is what was a complete misery. In actual fact, his discovery was the first to explain that stars are composed of hydrogen, not thermonuclear energy. 

2. His Knowledge of Star rotation is Fascinating

The was focused to explore the rotation of stars. In his investigations, he came up with five schools of knowledge as follows First, “The leading theory of stellar energy, the contraction hypothesis should cause stars rotation to visibly speed up due to conversation of angular momentum.” His second reasoning was “The only other known plausible source of energy was the conversion of matter to energy; Einstein had shown some years earlier that a small amount of matter was equivalent to a large amount of energy.” Thirdly, “Francis Aston had shown that the mass of a helium atom was about 0.8% less than the mass of the four hydrogen atoms which would, combine, form a helium atom. suggesting that if such a combination could happen, it would release considerable energy as a byproduct. The fourth fact of his knowledge is that the stars contain just 5% of fusible hydrogen and this complains the reason why stars get their energy. This knowledge has remained relevant to date on how star gets their hydrogen. The fifth and last is the fact he introduced the accurate measurement of the atomic masses in the stars. In actual fact, he clarified the earlier fact that stars were crucibles and that elements combine and create heavy elements.

3. His Physics in Describing Dwarf Stars

Arthur Stanley Eddington by Samuel Johnson Woolf, 1934, charcoal and chalk on paper, from the National Portrait Gallery as a gift of Time magazine – NPG-NPG 78 TC344Eddington-000001.jpg Photo by Samuel Johnson Woolf – Wikimedia Commons

He introduced a very important topic in astrophysics that clashed with the works of Jeans and Edward Arthur Milne (a university lecturer in mathematics and astrophysics). His models stood advantage of developments in quantum physics and the use of degeneracy physics in describing dwarf stars in the area of stellar structure in the 1920s and 30s.

4. His Knowledge Confirmed for Further Study

He confirmed that the stellar diameters by Michelson in 1920 became an important aspect of training future generation astrophysicists about the internal constitution of the stars.  His knowledge of stellar evolution was endorsed for further investigations by astronomers.

He was nominated to the post of chief assistant to the Astronomer Royal in 1906 at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. His position entitles him to work on the analysis of the parallax of 433 Eros on photographic plates which had started in 1900.

5. He Won the Smith Prize and other 

Sir Arthur Eddington – 4 Bennett Park Blackheath SE3.jpg Photo by Spudgun67 – Wikimedia Commons

 He became the winner of the Smith’s prize in 1907 by developing a statistical method based on the apparent drift of two background stars. Further, this prize gave him way into Trinity College, Cambridge as a fellow. In 1913, he was promoted to the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy.  However, it was not long before he was promoted to the director of the entire Cambridge Observatory. Afterward, in 1914, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1928 when he was still a member of the Royal Society, he was awarded the Royal Medal.

6. His Investigation about the Interior of Stars

Eddington was hardworking and always focused to learn more about the stars. In 1916, he launched an investigation on the interior of stars through theory. This is the time that he developed his first understanding of stellar processes. More importantly, his study was based on the physical explanation for Cepheid variable stars where his base was the extension of Karl Schwarzschild’s works on radiation pressure in Emden polytropic models. The results. Nevertheless, this allowed for the calculation of temperature, density, and pressure at all points inside a star a processed call thermodynamic anisotropy. His theory was the beginning of more research on astrophysical.

7. Secretary of the Royal Society

Einstein, Ehrenfest, De Sitter; Eddington and Lorentz, 26 September 1923, Leiden.jpg Photo by H. van Batenburg – Wikimedia Commons

He was appointed as the secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society during World War I, a position that gave him an opportunity to receive letters and papers from Willem de Sitter in regard to Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Being an astronomer, he understood general relativity more because of his skills in mathematics.

8. Observed Solar Eclipse

Together with Astronomer Royal Frank Watson Dyson, they prepared the two expeditions to observe a solar eclipse in 1919, making the first empirical test of Einstein’s theory. Frank Watson was very impressed by the works of Eddington, in particular, in the area of measurement of the deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field.

9. The Fascinating curvature of Light Around the Sun

Eddington was very excited about his discoveries. At one point, he presented his observations of the curvature of light around the sun which was a confirmation of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This was recorded in the minute book of the Cambridge  ∇²V club for the meeting.

10. He Developed the Fundamental Theory

Eddington worked hard and developed the first generation of general relativistic cosmological models. Eddington interpreted the Mathematical Theory of Relativity that the universe is self-gauging. 1920 was his highlight of developing the fundamental theory which unified the quantum theory, relativity, cosmology, and gravitation. Originally, he combined several fundamental constants whereby a dimensionless number was produced.