The article tells about who Thomas Jung is, what he contributed to the development of physics and what else he did besides it.
Science
At all times there were inquisitive people who were interested to know the true structure of the Universe, some of its individual processes or phenomena. In our time, the importance of science for humanity is beyond doubt, but this was not always the case. Fortunately, those days are long gone, and outstanding discoveries from the field of physics and other sciences have been unceasingly made for the last few hundred years. And Thomas Jung is one of those who are put on a par with other great scientists of the past - Becquerel, Lomonosov, Mendeleev.
But what is he famous for and what discoveries did he make? We will talk about this in this article. This scientist is also known for the fact that he was not limited to his research in physics alone. He has scientific works on optics, mechanics, philology and physiology of vision.
Thomas Young's contribution to the development of physics
In 1793, Jung, in one of his works on human vision, pointed out that the accommodation of the eye occurs due to the process of changing the curvature of the lens. Further observations in the field of optics led the scientist to the idea that the corpuscular theory of light, which at that timeconsidered dominant, is not entirely true. When Jung spoke out in favor of the wave theory of light, practically all scientists in England of that time did not agree with him, and under the pressure of their opinion, he temporarily abandoned his own conclusions. Later, however, Thomas Jung again returned to his wave theory of light and was the first to consider the problem of superposition of waves. Investigating this phenomenon further, he discovered the principle of interference. True, this term was introduced by Jung himself only a few years later.
And in one of the reports to the Royal Society, he was also the first to give an explanation of the so-called Newton's rings, based on the basics of interference, and spoke about his first experiments, the purpose of which was to measure the length of various waves of light. So now we know what Thomas Jung is famous for.
In 1804, he examined and described in detail the phenomenon of diffraction. After the research of the scientist Fresnel on the interference of light, which is polarized, Jung hypothesized that the oscillations of light waves are penny. Among the merits of Jung is the development of the theory of color vision, which is based on the assumption that in the shell of the eye there are light-sensitive fibers that respond to three main light spectra. Now consider the most famous experience of Thomas Young.
Experience
This experience was the proof of the wave theory of light. And its first results were published in 1803. In this experiment, a beam of light was directed onto an opaque screen, on which two parallelslots. A projection screen was installed behind the screen. The peculiarity of the parallel slits was that their width was approximately equal to the wavelength of the light emitted in the experiment. And as a result of this, a whole series of interference fringes was obtained on the screen, which proved the correctness of the theory advocated by Thomas Young. The physicist clearly demonstrated to observers the wave nature of light.
Other scientific papers
This outstanding scientist of his time was also engaged in linguistics - he proved the kinship of the Indo-European languages. And by the way, it was he who came up with the definition of “Indo-European”. Also among his merits is the introduction of such a characteristic as the numerical value of elasticity during compression or tension, which is called Young's modulus.
Thomas Jung: biography
The future scientist was born in 1773 in the family of a simple silk merchant. He learned to read early and already in childhood he had a very good memory, curiosity and a strong craving for science. So, already at the age of 8 he became seriously interested in mathematics and geodesy, where he showed remarkable talents. And as a teenager, he already knew languages such as Latin, Hebrew, Italian, Arabic and French. Not every adult can boast so much linguistic knowledge! In addition to all this, according to the recollections of relatives, Jung was also fond of history and botany.
But initially, Jung chose medicine as his life's occupation. He received his medical degree in 1796. But the eventwhich made him financially independent and allowed him to go headlong into science, without thinking about the source of income, was the death of his uncle - he left young Thomas a large monetary inheritance.
Jung later opened a private medical practice and began publishing at the same time. But anonymously, because he feared for his reputation as a doctor. Later he became interested in acoustics and optics. At the age of 21, he became an active member of the Royal Society of London and for some time served as secretary in it. In 1803 he received the title of professor at the Royal Institute. And a year later he married Eliza Maxwell.
Despite his success in physics, from 1811 until the very end of his life, Thomas Jung continued to work as a doctor in one of the hospitals in London. He did not part with the profession of a doctor in 1818, when he became secretary of the Bureau of Longitudes and editor of such a publication as the Nautical Calendar. Jung also contributed, in addition to one edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, by writing some 60 chapters. They were mostly biographies of scientists.
Conclusion
Besides practicing medicine and science, he is also known as a good musician, a connoisseur of painting and a gymnast. This versatile man passed away on May 10, 1829. Buried Thomas Young in London.
