Today (May 21, 1964) is the Memorial Day of James Frank's, he is the Nobel Prize-winning German physicist who invented laws governing electron impact on the atom by the Frank-Hertz experiment.

Today (May 21, 1964) is the Memorial Day of James Frank's,  he is the Nobel Prize-winning German physicist who invented laws governing electron impact on the atom by the Frank-Hertz experiment.

 

On August 26, 1882, James Frank was born in a Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany. His father, Jacob Frank, was a banker. A devout and religious man, at the same time his mother hails from the Rabbi's family. Frank attended elementary school in Hamburg. Beginning in 1891, he attended Wilhelm Gymnasium. It was just a boys' school then. Hamburg had no university then. So prospective students had to enroll in one of the 22 universities in Germany and elsewhere. Frank wanted to study law and economics and in 1901 entered the prestigious law school at the University of Heidelberg. He attended lectures on law. But he was more concerned with those interested in science. While there, she met Max Barn, who would become a lifelong friend.

 

With Bourne's help, he was able to persuade his parents to allow him to study physics and chemistry. Frank attended the mathematical lectures of Leo Koenigsberger and George Cantor. But Heidelberg is not strong in physics. So he decided to go to Frederick William University in Berlin. In Berlin, Frank attended the lectures of Max Blanc and Emil Warburg. On July 28, 1904, he saved a couple of children from drowning in the Spree River. For his Doctor of Philosophy (Dir. Phil.), Under the supervision of Warburg, Warburg recommended studying the Corona discharges. Frank found the topic very complicated. So he changed the focus of his thesis.

 

Upon completion of his thesis, Frank had to perform his deferred military service. On October 1, 1906, he joined the 1st Telegraph Battalion. He was released from duty in December after suffering a minor horseback accident. He was employed as an assistant in 1907 at Physicalich Vereen in Frankfurt. But he did not enjoy it and soon returned to Frederick William University. At a concert, Frank met Swedish piano artist Ingrid Josephson. They were married on December 23, 1907, at a Swedish ceremony in Gothenburg. They had two daughters. To pursue an education career in Germany, having a doctorate is not enough. One needs a Vania Legend or Residence. This can be achieved through another major thesis or by producing a substantial body of published works.

 

Frank chose the latter route. There were many unresolved problems in physics at the time. By 1914, he had published 34 articles. In 1914, Frank Hertz conducted an experiment to investigate fluorescence. They designed a vacuum tube to study the energetic electrons flying through the thin vapor of mercury atoms. They discovered that when an electron collides with a mercury atom, it can lose only a certain amount of kinetic energy (4.9 electron volts) before flying. After a fast electron collision does not completely fall apart. But it loses precisely the same amount of kinetic energy. Slow electrons chase mercury atoms without losing any significant speed and kinetic energy.

 

These experimental results show that Albert Einstein's photovoltaic effect and Planck's relation (E = hv) combine energy (E) and frequency (v) with Planck's constant (h) to quantify energy. But they also provided evidence supporting the atomic model proposed by Niels Bohr the previous year. Its main feature is that an electron inside an atom occupies one of the "quantum energy levels" of the atom. Before the collision, an electron inside the mercury atom occupies its lowest energy level. After the collision, the inside electron 4.9 electron volt occupies a higher energy level with higher energy. This means that the electron is more loosely bound to the mercury atom.

 

In a second study, issued in May 1914, Frank and Hertz absorbed energy from conflicts over the light emission of mercury atoms. They showed that the wavelength of this ultraviolet light corresponds exactly to the 4.9 ev energy lost by the flying electron. The relationship between energy and wavelength was also predicted by Bohr. Frank and Hertz completed their last thesis together in December 1918. In it, they compromised the contradictions between their results and the doctrine of war, which they now admit. In his Nobel Lecture, Frank acknowledged that "it is completely incomprehensible that we have failed to recognize the fundamental importance of the theory of war."

  

Frank is the head of the physics division of Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft for Physics Chemistry. In 1920, Frank became Professor of Experimental Physics, Artinarius, and Director of the Second Institute of Experimental Physics at the University of Gottingen. There he worked in quantum physics with Max Born, director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics. His work also includes the Frank-Hertz experiment, an important confirmation of the atomic warfare model. She promoted women's lives in physics, notably Liz Meitner, Herta Sponer, and Hilde Levy.

 

After the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933, Frank resigned from his position to protest the expulsion of fellow academics. Before leaving Germany in November 1933, he assisted the dismissed Jewish scientists in search of work abroad. At the Niels War Institute in Denmark, where he worked at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. A year later, he moved to the United States and worked at the University of Chicago. During this period he became interested in photosynthesis. During World War II, Frank participated in the Manhattan Project as director of the Chemistry Division of the Metallurgical Laboratory. He was also chairman of the Political and Social Issues Committee on the atomic bomb. This is most famous for the Frank report set. It suggested that nuclear bombs should not be used without warning in Japanese cities.

 

From early studies of ionic motion to his previous work on photosynthesis, his research followed almost a straight line. The exchange of energy between atoms or molecules has always fascinated him. In addition to the Nobel Prize. In 1955 Frank Deutsch received the Max Blanc Medal of the Physicalische Gesellschaft and the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1955 for his work on photosynthesis. In 1953 he became an honorary citizen of Gottingen. James Frank left the world on May 21, 1964, at the age of 65 in Gottingen. In 1967, the University of Chicago was named the James Frank Institute. A lunar crater is named after him. His papers are in the University of Chicago Library.

Source By: Wikipedia

Information: Ramesh, Assistant Professor of Physics, Nehru Memorial College, Puthanampatti, Trichy.