Compton Arthur Holly

Compton

, Arthur Holly 1892-1962.

American physicist. He shared a 1927 Nobel Prize for his discovery of the Compton effect.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Comp·ton

(kŏmp′tən), Arthur Holly 1892-1962.

American physicist who proved Albert Einstein's statement that a particle of light has momentum even though it has no mass. Compton's experiments showed that when particles of light (called photons) collide with other particles, such as electrons, they lose energy and momentum and the light's wavelength increases. This phenomenon became known as the Compton effect.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.