In science, John Poynting (1852-1914) was an English physicist noted for []
Overview
In 1883, Poynting, as cited in discussions of the superluminal Filon-Pearson demon (Ѻ), in his “Overtaking the Rays of Light”, building on an anonymous circa 1843 to 1953 pamphlet entitled “The Stars and the Earth: Thoughts on Space, Time, and Eternity”, digressed on the physical possibility of the idea of “magnifying or reducing time”. [1]
In 1909, Poynting, in his “Atomic Theory: Medieval and Modern”, wrote about the Roger Boscovich, in particular how William Thomson even took up the ‘inevitable theory of Boscovich’, and sought to show how the grouping of Boscovichian atoms could account for crystalline arrangement and for the phenomena of light. [1]
In 1925, Alfred Lotka dedicated his Elements of Physical Biology to the “memory of Poynting”, on the opening page, and later (viii) states:
“My greatest debt is acknowledged in the dedication. Whatever merits this book possesses may well be credited to the influence and teaching of Poynting. There is little danger that its faults shall be charged to his account.”
The only place, however, that Lotka cites Poynting is in reference note (pg. 193) to Poynting’s 1913 The Earth, which gives the principle determinations of the mass of the earth.
Education
Poynting was one of James Maxwell’s students (Ѻ) at Cambridge between 1871 and 1878.
References
1. (a) Poynting, John H. (1883). “Overtaking the Rays of Light”, Mason College Magazine, 1:107-11; in: Scientific Papers. Cambridge University Press, 1981.
(b) Nahin, Paul J. (1993). Time Machines: Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction (Poynting, pgs. 103, 602). Publisher.
2. Poynting, John H. (1909). “Atomic Theory: Medieval and Modern”, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 2:203-10; in: Collected Scientific Papers (pg. 730), 1954. CUP Archive.
3. Lotka, Alfred J. (1925). Elements of Physical Biology (republished (Ѻ) as: Elements of Mathematical Biology, which includes: corrections from Lotka’s notes and a completed list of his publications) (pdf) (Ѻ) (txt). (thermodynamics, 21+ pgs; evolution equilibrium quote, pg. 23; Julius Davidson, pgs. 304, 356). Dover, 1956.
External links
● John Henry Poynting – Wikipedia.
