{{Short description|American theoretical physicist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Leigh Page | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1884|10|13}} | birth_place = New Jersey, USA | death_date = {{death date and age |1952|9|14|1884|10|13}} | death_place = New Haven, Connecticut, USA | field = Physicist | work_institution = Yale University | alma_mater = Yale University | doctoral_advisor = Henry Andrews Bumstead | doctoral_students = John Stuart Foster | known_for = Relativistic electromagnetism }}
'''Leigh Page''' (October 13, 1884 – September 14, 1952) was an American theoretical physicist. Chairman of Mathematical Physics at the Sloane Physics Laboratory of Yale University for over three decades, he is the namesake of Yale's Leigh Page Prize Lectures.
==Biography==
Page was born October 13, 1884, in South Orange, New Jersey to Edward Day Page and Cornelia Lee.<ref name = Swann>{{cite journal |author=W. F. G. Swann |title=Leigh Page: 1884-1952 |journal=Science |volume=117 |issue=3038 |pages=289–290 |date=Mar 1953 |doi=10.1126/science.117.3038.289|bibcode = 1953Sci...117..289S |pmid=17742079|author-link=W. F. G. Swann }}</ref><ref>"Prof. Page of Yale Relativity Expert; Faculty Member 40 Years-Who Called Formulae of Einstein 'Too Restricted' Dies at 68", ''The New York Times'', September 17, 1952.</ref> He came to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1909 as an assistant professor in drawing and graduate student under Henry Andrews Bumstead. He switched to physics in 1912, was appointed assistant professor of physics in 1916. He published a survey of "A Century's Progress in Physics" in 1918,<ref>L. Page (1918) "A Century's Progress in Physics", ''American Journal of Science'' Series 4, 46: 303–54,</ref> and became professor of mathematical physics in 1922, where he remained until his death in 1952. Devoting most of his time to teaching, Page conducted research and wrote several textbooks, which appeared in various editions, often with the assistance of colleague Norman I. Adams. The books ''Electrodynamics'' and ''Introduction to Theoretical Physics'' "have had a profound influence on the development of many of America's leading mathematical physicists."<ref name = Swann/>
In 1967 Yale University sponsored the first of the Leigh Page Prize Lectures, an honor since bestowed on several Nobel laureates and other notable physicists.
==Scientific contributions== As a physics educator, Leigh Page was an advocate of the relativistic electromagnetism approach to the field equations. It is common for lecturers to present the Lorentz covariance of these equations, but Page said<ref>L. Page (1922) ''An Introduction to Electrodynamics from the Standpoint of Electron Theory'', preface</ref> :As the dependence of electromagnetism on the relativity principle is far more intimate than is suggested by this covariance, it has seemed more logical to derive the electrodynamic equations directly from this principle. He derived a complete electromagnetic theory, including Maxwell's equations, from only Coulomb's law and the Lorentz transformation.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Leigh Page |title=A Derivation of the Fundamental Relations of Electrodynamics from Those of Electrostatics |journal=American Journal of Science |volume=34 |issue=199 |pages=57–68 |date=Jul 1912 |doi=10.2475/ajs.s4-34.199.57|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1450178 |bibcode=1912AmJS...34...57P }}</ref>
Page proposed an emission theory that successfully explained blackbody radiation and other phenomena in electrodynamic terms,<ref>{{cite journal |author=Leigh Page |title=The Distribution of Energy in the Normal Radiation Spectrum |journal=Physical Review |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=229–240 |date=Feb 1916 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.7.229|bibcode = 1916PhRv....7..229P |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1708595 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Leigh Page |title=Is a Moving Mass Retarded by the Reaction of its own Radiation? |journal=Physical Review |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=376–400 |date=May 1918 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.11.376|bibcode = 1918PhRv...11..376P }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Leigh Page |title=The Motion of an Electrical Doublet |journal=Physical Review |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=371–380 |date=Nov 1918 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.12.371|bibcode = 1918PhRv...12..371P |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2054545 }}</ref> but was eventually abandoned in favor of later theories of quantum mechanics.
He reported on the photoelectric effect in 1913.<ref>L. Page (Nov. 1913) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015055057809;view=1up;seq=3 The Photoelectric Effect], ''American Journal of Science'' 36: 501–8, link from HathiTrust</ref>
The theory of relativity generally concerns inertial frames of reference while students of dynamics must consider accelerations due to force. A frame of reference under constant acceleration is sometimes described as in hyperbolic motion. In 1936 Page and Adams presented in Physical Review their analysis of constantly accelerating frames as a "new relativity".<ref>{{cite journal |author=Leigh Page |title=A New Relativity. Paper I. Fundamental Principles and Transformations Between Accelerated Systems |journal=Physical Review |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=254–268 |date=Feb 1936 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.49.254|bibcode = 1936PhRv...49..254P }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Leigh Page & Norman I. Adams |title=A New Relativity. Paper II. Transformation of the Electromagnetic Field Between Accelerated Systems and the Force Equation |journal=Physical Review |volume=49 |issue=6 |pages=466–469 |date=Mar 1936 |doi=10.1103/PhysRev.49.466|bibcode = 1936PhRv...49..466P }}</ref>
==Books== * 1922: [https://archive.org/details/introductiontoel030885mbp An Introduction to Electrodynamics from the Standpoint of Electron Theory], D. Van Nostrand Co., link from Internet Archive. * 1928: (with N.I. Adams) ''Introduction to Theoretical Physics'', D. Van Nostrand Co.<ref>{{cite journal | author = G.H.L. | year = 1929 | title = ''Review: ''Introduction to Theoretical Physics | journal = Nature | volume = 124 | issue = 3127| page = 528 | doi = 10.1038/124527a0| bibcode = 1929Natur.124..527G | s2cid = 42774524 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Hill E. L. | year = 1953 | title = Review: 3rd edition ''Introduction to Theoretical Physics'' | journal = American Journal of Physics | volume = 21 | issue = 6| page = 480 | doi = 10.1119/1.1933515 | bibcode = 1953AmJPh..21..480P }}</ref> * 1931, 49, 58: (with N.I. Adams) [http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015017241046;view=1up;seq=9 Principles of Electricity, 3rd edition], D. Van Nostrand Co., link from HathiTrust. * 1940: (with N.I. Adams) ''[https://archive.org/details/ElectrodynamicsL.Page Electrodynamics]'', D. Van Nostrand Co., link from Internet Archive
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://physics.yale.edu/special-events/leigh-page-prize-lectures Leigh Page Prize Lectures] from department of physics, Yale University.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Leigh}} Category:20th-century American physicists Category:American particle physicists Category:American quantum physicists Category:Yale University faculty Category:People from South Orange, New Jersey Category:1884 births Category:1952 deaths Category:American theoretical physicists Category:American textbook writers Category:Yale University alumni