Rayleigh, John William Strutt, 3d Baron (rāˈlē) [key], 1842–1919, English physicist. He was professor at Cambridge (1879–84) and at the Royal Institution (1887–1905), and chancellor of Cambridge from 1908. He won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery (with Sir William Ramsay) of argon. He is known for his extensive and important research in sound (resonance, vibration, diffraction, hearing) and light (scattering, polarization, optics, color vision); for his determinations of electrical units; and for his investigation of the application of Boyle's law to gases at low pressures. His works include The Theory of Sound (1877–78) and Scientific Papers (1899–1920).
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