Biography:George Johnstone Stoney
| George Johnstone Stoney | |
|---|---|
| |
| Stoney | |
| Born | 15 February 1826 Oakley Park, Ireland |
| Died | 5 July 1911 London, England
|
| Known for | Name electron; elementary charge |
George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911) was an Irish physicist who introduced the name electron for the elementary unit of electric charge.
Electron naming
Stoney argued that electricity has a natural unit and later proposed the name electron for that unit. After J. J. Thomson identified the electron as a subatomic particle, the name became attached to the particle itself.
Stoney's work belongs to the pre-quantum history of charge quantization and particle physics.
Quantum Collection links
References
- "George Johnstone Stoney". https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Johnstone-Stoney.
- "George Johnstone Stoney". https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Stoney/.
Author: Harold Foppele