Carl d anderson biography
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Physics History Network
Dates
September 3, 1905 – January 11, 1991
Authorized Form of Name
Anderson, Carl D. (Carl David), 1905-1991
Additional Forms of Names
Anderson, Carl D., 1905-1991
Anderson, Carl David, 1905-1991
Abstract
Carl David Anderson was an American physicist, who received the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is renowned for his discovery of the positron and the muon.
Important Dates
September 3, 1905Birth, New York (N.Y.).
1927Obtained BS in Physics and Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (Calif.).
1930Obtained PhD in Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (Calif.).
1930 – 1991Research Fellow (1930-1933); Assistant Professor to Associate Professor of Physics (1933-1939); Professor of Physics (1939-1976); Chair, Division of Physics Mathematics and Astronomy (1962-1970); and Emeritus Professor of Physics (1977-1991), California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (Calif.).
1936Awarded Nobel Prize in Ph
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Scientist of the Day - Carl Anderson
Carl David Anderson, an American experimental physicist, was born Sep. 3, 1905, in New York City. He did his undergraduate work at Caltech in Pasadena, where Robert Millikan had built the boat and ran the ship. Anderson stayed on to do his PhD work under Millikan, who at the time (1930) was interested in cosmic rays. The fact that highly energetic particles rain in on us from outer space had been discovered by an Austrian, Victor Hess, in 1912, but no one much followed up on his work, until Millikan in the late 1920s chose to do so. Millikan also gave the rain of particles the name “cosmic rays,” the term we still use.
Millikan had three teams of graduate students investigating cosmic rays with different apparatus, such as Geiger counters and electroscopes. Anderson chose, or was assigned, to build a cloud chamber for studying cosmic rays. The cloud chamber had been invented by an Englishman, C.T.R. Wilson, also in 1912. It was a clever d
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Carl David Anderson
American physicist (1905–1991)
Carl David Anderson (September 3, 1905 – January 11, 1991) was an American physicist who shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics with Victor Francis Hess for his upptäckt of the positron.
Biography
[edit]Anderson was born in New York City, the son of Swedish immigrants. He studied physics and engineering at Caltech (B.S., 1927; Ph.D., 1930). Under the supervision of Robert A. Millikan, he began investigations into relaterad till rymden eller universum rays during the course of which he encountered unexpected particle tracks in his (modern versions now commonly referred to as an Anderson) cloud chamber photographs that he correctly interpreted as having been created bygd a particle with the same mass as the electron, but with opposite electrical charge. This upptäckt, announced in 1932 and later confirmed by others, validated Paul Dirac's theoretical prediction of the existence of the positron. Anderson first detected the particles in relaterad till rymden eller universum rays. He the