View source for Wilhelm Wien

{{Short description|German physicist (1864–1928)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Wien2.jpg
| caption           = Wien in 1911
| birth_name        = Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1864|1|13}}
| birth_place       = Gaffken, [[Province of Prussia]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1928|8|30|1864|1|13}}
| death_place       = [[Munich]], [[Bavaria]], [[Weimar Republic]]
| alma_mater        = [[University of Göttingen]]<br>[[University of Berlin]] ([[PhD]])
| known_for         = {{plainlist|
*[[Wien filter]]
*[[Wien's displacement law]]
*[[Wien's distribution law]]
}}
| relatives         = [[Max Wien]] (cousin)
| awards            = [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1911)<br>[[Institute of Physics Michael Faraday Medal and Prize#Guthrie lecturers|Guthrie Lecture]] (1925) 
| fields            = [[Physics]]
| work_institutions = {{plainlist|
*[[RWTH Aachen]] (1896–1899)
*[[University of Giessen]] (1899–1900)
*[[University of Würzburg]] (1900–1920)
*[[University of Munich]] (1920–1928)
}}
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Hermann von Helmholtz]]
| doctoral_students = [[Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark]]<br>[[Eduard Rüchardt]]
}}
'''Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien''' ({{IPA|de|ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈviːn|lang|De-Wilhelm Wien.ogg}}; 13 January 1864 – 30 August 1928) was a German [[physicist]] who, in 1893, used theories about [[heat]] and [[electromagnetism]] to deduce [[Wien's displacement law]], which calculates the [[Emission (electromagnetic radiation)|emission]] of a [[blackbody]] at any temperature from the emission at any one reference temperature.

He also formulated an expression for the [[black-body radiation]], which is correct in the [[photon-gas]] limit. His arguments were based on the notion of [[adiabatic invariant|adiabatic invariance]], and were instrumental for the formulation of [[quantum mechanics]]. Wien received the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1911 for his work on [[heat radiation]].

He was a cousin of [[Max Wien]], inventor of the [[Wien bridge]].

==Biography==

===Early years===
Wien was born at Gaffken (now in [[Baltiysky District, Kaliningrad Oblast|Baltiysky District]]) near Fischhausen in the [[Province of Prussia]] as the son of landowner Carl Wien. In 1866, his family moved to [[Smokowo, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship|Drachenstein]] near [[Kętrzyn|Rastenburg]] (now Kętrzyn, Poland).

In 1879, Wien went to school in Rastenburg and from 1880 to 1882 he attended the city school of [[Heidelberg]]. In 1882 he attended the [[University of Göttingen]] and the [[University of Berlin]]. From 1883 to 1885, he worked in the laboratory of [[Hermann von Helmholtz]] and, in 1886, he received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] with a thesis on the diffraction of [[light]] upon metals and on the influence of various materials upon the [[color]] of refracted light. From 1896 to 1899, Wien lectured at [[RWTH Aachen University]]. He became twice successor of [[Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen]], in 1900 at the [[University of Würzburg]] and in 1920 at the [[University of Munich]]. Wien was very active in science politics representing conservative and nationalistic positions though being not as extreme as sharing the attitude of those going to develop the "[[Deutsche Physik]]". He appreciated both [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Theory of relativity|relativity]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.deutsches-museum.de/fileadmin/Content/010_DM/050_Forschung/020_Forschung_Mitarbeiter/Wolff_01.pdf|title=Physiker im "Krieg der Geister"|last=Wolff|first=Stefan L.|date=30 July 2017}}</ref>

===Career===
In 1896 Wien empirically determined a distribution law of [[blackbody radiation]],<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1=Kragh |first1=H.
 |year=2002
 |title=Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELrFDIldlawC&pg=PA58
 |page=58
 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]
 |isbn=978-0-691-09552-3
}}</ref> later named after him: [[Wien approximation|Wien's law]]. [[Max Planck]], who was a colleague of Wien's, did not believe in empirical laws, so using electromagnetism and thermodynamics, he proposed a theoretical basis for Wien's law, which became the [[Wien–Planck law]]. However, Wien's law was only valid at high frequencies, and underestimated the radiancy at low frequencies. Planck corrected the theory and proposed what is now called [[Planck's law]], which led to the development of [[Quantum mechanics|quantum theory]]. However, Wien's other empirical formulation <math>\lambda_{\mathrm{max}} T = \mathrm{constant}</math>, called [[Wien's displacement law]], is still very useful, as it relates the peak wavelength emitted by a body (''λ''<sub>max</sub>), to the temperature of the body (T). In 1900 (following the work of [[George Frederick Charles Searle]]), he assumed that the entire mass of matter is of electromagnetic origin and proposed the formula <math>m=(4/3)E/c^2</math> for the relation between electromagnetic mass and electromagnetic energy.

Wien developed the [[Wien filter]] (also known as velocity selector) in 1898 for the study of anode rays. It is a device consisting of perpendicular electric and magnetic fields that can be used as a velocity filter for charged particles, for example in electron microscopes and spectrometers. It is used in accelerator mass spectrometry to select particles based on their speed. The device is composed of orthogonal electric and magnetic fields, such that particles with the correct speed will be unaffected while other particles will be deflected. It can be configured as a charged particle energy analyzer, monochromator, or mass spectrometer.

While studying streams of [[ionized gas]], Wien, in 1898, identified a positive particle equal in mass to the [[hydrogen]] [[atom]]. Wien, with this work, laid the foundation of [[mass spectrometry]]. [[J. J. Thomson]] refined Wien's apparatus and conducted further experiments in 1913 then, after work by [[Ernest Rutherford]] in 1919, Wien's particle was accepted and named the [[proton]].

In 1911, Wien was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] "for his discoveries regarding the laws governing the radiation of heat".<ref>
{{cite web
 |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1911
 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1911/
 |publisher=[[The Nobel Foundation]]
 |access-date=9 August 2014
}}</ref> He delivered the [[Ernest Kempton Adams Lectures|Ernest Kempton Adams Lecture]] at [[Columbia University]] in 1913.<ref>{{Cite web |title=EKA Lecture Series Returns, Bringing International Quantum Science to Columbia for More Than a Century {{!}} Department of Physics |url=https://www.physics.columbia.edu/news/eka-lecture-series-returns-bringing-international-quantum-science-columbia-more-century |access-date=2023-05-28 |website=www.physics.columbia.edu |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[History of special relativity]]
*[[Mass–energy equivalence]]

==Publications==
{{Wikisourcelang|de}}
{{Wikisourceauthor}}

*{{Cite journal
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1898
 |title=Ueber die Fragen, welche die translatorische Bewegung des Lichtäthers betreffen
 |journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
 |volume=301 |issue=3 |pages=1–18
 |bibcode=1898AnP...301....1D
 |doi=10.1002/andp.18983010502
|title-link=s:de:Translatorische Bewegung des Lichtäthers}}
*{{cite book
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1900
 |title=Lehrbuch der Hydrodynamik
 |url=https://archive.org/details/lehrbuchderhydr01wiengoog
 |publisher=S. Hirzel
 |isbn=978-0-691-21419-1 |ol=16968004M
 |oclc=557663670
}}
*{{Cite journal
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1900
 |title=Über die Möglichkeit einer elektromagnetischen Begründung der Mechanik
 |journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
 |volume=310 |issue=7 |pages=501–513
 |bibcode=1901AnP...310..501W
 |doi=10.1002/andp.19013100703
|title-link=s:de:Über die Möglichkeit einer elektromagnetischen Begründung der Mechanik }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1904a
 |title=Über die Differentialgleichungen der Elektrodynamik für bewegte Körper. I
 |journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
 |volume=318|issue=4|pages=641–662
 |bibcode=1904AnP...318..641W
 |doi=10.1002/andp.18943180402
|title-link=s:de:Differentialgleichungen der Elektrodynamik I }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1904b
 |title=Über die Differentialgleichungen der Elektrodynamik für bewegte Körper. II
 |journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
 |volume=318 |issue=4 |pages=663–668
 |bibcode=1904AnP...318..663W
 |doi=10.1002/andp.18943180403
|title-link=s:de:Differentialgleichungen der Elektrodynamik II }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1904c
 |title=Erwiderung auf die Kritik des Hrn. M. Abraham
 |journal=[[Annalen der Physik]]
 |volume=319 |issue=8 |pages=635–637
 |bibcode=1904AnP...319..635W
 |doi=10.1002/andp.19043190817
|title-link=s:de:Erwiderung auf die Kritik des Hrn. M. Abraham }}
*{{Cite journal
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1904d
 |title=Zur Elektronentheorie
 |journal=[[Physikalische Zeitschrift]]
 |volume=5 |issue=14 |pages=393–395
|title-link=s:de:Zur Elektronentheorie }}
*{{cite book
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1930
 |title=Aus dem Leben und Wirken eines Physikers
 |publisher=Johann Ambrosius Barth
 |isbn=978-0-691-21419-1 |oclc=249831418
}}
*{{cite book
 |last1=Wien |first1=Wilhelm |author-mask=2
 |year=1913
 |title=Neuere Probleme der theoretischen Physik
 |url=http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=514609244&searchurl=tn%3DNeuere%2BProbleme%2Bder%2Btheoretischen%2BPhysik
 |publisher=[[B. G. Teubner]]
 |ol=6565621M
 |lccn=14005571
|language=de}}

==References==
*{{cite journal
 |last=Rüchardt |first=E.
 |year=1936
 |title=Zur Entdeckung der Kanalstrahlen vor fünfzig Jahren
 |journal=[[Naturwissenschaften]]
 |volume=24 |issue=30 |pages=57–62
 |bibcode = 1936NW.....24..465R
 |doi=10.1007/BF01473963
 |s2cid=33211480
 }}
*{{cite journal
 |last=Rüchardt |first=E.
 |year=1955
 |title=Zur Erinnerung an Wilhelm Wien bei der 25. Wiederkehr seines Todestages
 |journal=[[Naturwissenschaften]]
 |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=57–62
 |bibcode = 1955NW.....42...57R
 |doi=10.1007/BF00589524
|s2cid=42482780
 }}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons|Wilhelm Wien}}
*{{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1911 ''On the Laws of Thermal Radiation''
*[http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/wilhelm_wien.html Wilhelm Wien] on www.nobel-winners.com
*{{MacTutor Biography|id=Wien|mode=cs1}}

{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1901-1925}}
{{1911 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Scientists whose names are used in physical constants}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wien, Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1864 births]]
[[Category:1928 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Baltiysky District, Kaliningrad Oblast]]
[[Category:Scientists from the Province of Prussia]]
[[Category:19th-century  German physicists]]
[[Category:20th-century German  physicists]]
[[Category:German theoretical physicists]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of RWTH Aachen University]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Würzburg]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physics]]
[[Category:German Nobel laureates]]