Pieter Zeeman 1902 (13)

Pieter Zeeman 1902 (13)

Pieter Zeeman was born to Catharinus Forandinus Zeeman and Wilhelmina Zeeman on 25, May, 1865 in a tiny village located in Schouwen-Duiveland in Netherlands. Zeeman’s father was a clergyman in the village. Pieter Zeeman was educated at his local school in Zierikzee and displayed a deep interest in the sciences from an early age. In 1883, he created an illustration of Aurora Borealis that took place that year and the illustration was published by the British scientific journal ‘Nature’. After passing high school at the age of 18 in 1883, he was sent to Delft in order to learn the classical languages and he had to learn those languages since it was a compulsory requirement for anyone willing to go to university. After completing his training in the classical languages, Zeeman enrolled at the University of Leiden in 1885. He was taught physics by such luminaries of the time as Hendrik Lorentz and before long he worked as Lorentz’s assistant at the university.

It was in the year 1893 that Pieter Zeeman presented his doctoral thesis at the University of Leiden and the subject was Kerr effect. He was awarded his doctorate and spent some time at Friedrich Kohlrausch Institute located in Strasbourg but he returned to take up the position of a Privatdozent or senior research and teacher at the University of Leiden. His father was a Lutheran minister named Catharinus Farandinus Zeeman and his mothers name was Wilhelmina Worst. It was his mother who attended to his elementary education. He attended secondary school in Zierikzee, a town a few miles from his home. He had a strong desire to attend University, for which he had to study the classical languages.

During the 19th century important connections between electricity, magnetism and light were clarified by Hendrik Lorentz. It also became apparent that different substances emit and absorb light having certain fixed wavelengths. Every substance has a characteristic spectrum of lines. In 1896 Pieter Zeeman studied how light was affected by magnetic fields. It turned out that under the influence of a magnetic field, the lines in a spectrum split up into several lines. The phenomenon could be explained by the electron theory formulated by Pieter Zeeman’s mentor, Hendrik Lorentz.

After Zeeman passed the qualification exams in 1885, he studied physics at the University of Leiden under Kamerlingh Onnes and Hendrik Lorentz. In 1890, even before finishing his thesis, he became Lorentz’s assistant. This allowed him to participate in a research programme on the Kerr effect. In 1893 he submitted his doctoral thesis on the Kerr effect, the reflection of polarized light on a magnetized surface. After obtaining his doctorate he went for half a year to Friedrich Kohlrausch’s institute in Strasbourg. In 1895, after returning from Strasbourg, Zeeman became Privatdozent in mathematics and physics in Leiden.

A new laboratory built in 1923 allowed Zeeman to continue to study the Zeeman effect. The laboratory was renamed the Zeeman Laboratory in 1940. For the remainder of his career he remained interested in research in Magneto-Optics. He also studied the propagation of light in moving media. This became important because of study into special relativity, and enjoyed keen interest from Lorentz and Einstein. Later in his career he became interested in mass spectrometry.

And after a couple of years he finally entered the University of Leyden in 1885. Zeeman was a student of Hendrik Lorentz at the University of Leyden. He began lecturing at the University Leyden in 1890. In 1896, at the request of Lorentz, he began investigating the effect of magnetic fields on a light source and discovered what is now known as the Zeeman effect. This discovery proved Lorentz theory of electromagnetic radiation. Zeeman was appointed professor at Amsterdam and director of their physical institute. It is by way of the Zeeman Effect that astronomers cam measure the strength of the magnetic field on the surface of the sun, or other stars. Scientists were not able to fully understand the Effect until the development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. In 1902, Zeeman and Lorentz were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for their, extraordinary service they rendered by their researches into the influence of magnetism upon radiation phenomenon.

Zeeman Effect : What Zeeman effect is?  The Zeeman effect is the split of an spectral line into several components in the presence of a magnetic field. In most atoms, there exist several electronic configurations that have the same energy, so that transitions between different pairs of configurations correspond to a single line. The presence of a magnetic field breaks the degeneracy, since it interacts in a different way with electrons with different quantum numbers, slightly modifying their energies. The result is that, where there were several configurations with the same energy, now there are different energies, that give rise to several very close spectral lines.

Zeeman Spectral Splitting : The pattern and amount of splitting are a signature that a magnetic field is present, and of its strength. The splitting is associated with what is called the orbital angular momentum quantum number L of the atomic level. This quantum number can take non-negative integer values. The number of split levels in the magnetic field is 2 * L + 1.

Polarization of Spectral Lines  : The lines corresponding to Zeeman splitting also exhibit polarization effects. Polarization has to do with the direction in which the electromagnetic fields are vibrating. This in turn, can have an effect on whether the spectral light can be observed. For example, polarizing sunglasses are often effective in suppressing ambiant glare because light reflected from surfaces has a particular polarization and polarizing sunglasses are designed to not pass that polarization of light.

Pieter Zeeman is considered among the foremost physicists of his time and during his career he worked on a lot of concepts; however it was his work on spectral lines that came to be known as the ‘Zeeman Effect’ that is without doubt his greatest work. He shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery.

Pieter Zeeman is Awards & Achievements. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1902 along with Hendrik Lorentz for his work on the Zeeman Effect. Zeeman was awarded the Matteucci Medal in 1912 In 1921, Zeeman won the Henry Draper Medal. The Royal Society awarded Zeeman the Rumford Medal in 1922. The Franklin Institute awarded Zeeman the Franklin Medal in 1925.

Awards and honors : Zeeman received the following awards for his contributions. Nobel Prize for Physics (1902) Matteucci Medal (1912) Elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1921. Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1921) Rumford Medal (1922) Franklin Medal (1925) The crater Zeeman on the Moon is named in his honour.

Outside his field of study Zeeman showed much interest in literature and the stage. An entertaining host, he loved to invite his collaborators and pupils to dine with him at his home, an event preceded by a learned talk in his study and followed by a gathering in the family circle. Zeeman married Johanna Elisabeth Lebret in 1895; they had one son and three daughters. During the last year of his professorship he suffered from ill-health. He died after a short illness on October 9, 1943.