Hendrik Lorentz
Dutch physicist (1853–1928)
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (18 July 1853 – 4 February 1928) was a Dutch theoretical physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for their discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He derived the Lorentz transformation of the special theory of relativity, as well as the Lorentz force, which describes the force acting on a charged particle in an electromagnetic field. He was also responsible for the Lorentz oscillator model, a classical model used to describe the anomalous dispersion observed in dielectric materials when the driving frequency of the electric field was near the resonant frequency of the material, resulting in abnormal refractive indices.
Lorentz received many other honors and distinctions, including a term as Chairman of the International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, the forerunner of UNESCO, from 1925 until his death in 1928.
Early life and education
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was born on 18 July 1853 in Arnhem, Netherlands, the son of Gerrit Frederik Lorentz (1822–1893) and Geertruida van Ginkel (1826–1861). In 1862, after his mother's death, his father married Luberta Hupkes. Despite being raised as a Protestant, he was a freethinker in religious matters and regularly attended Catholic mass at his local French church.
From 1866 to 1869, Lorentz attended the Hogere Burgerschool in Arnhem, a new type of public high school recently established by Johan Thorbecke. His results in school were exemplary; not only did he excel in the physical sciences and mathematics, but also in English, French, and German. In 1870, he passed the exams in classical languages, which were then required for admission to university.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hendrik Lorentz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.