Henry Moseley

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (23 November 1887 – 10 August 1915) was an English physicist.

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley
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Henry G. J. Moseley
Born(1887-11-23)23 November 1887
Died10 October 1915(1915-10-10) (aged 27)
NationalityBritish
Alma materTrinity College, University of Oxford
University of Manchester
Known forAtomic Number, Moseley's Law
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics, chemistry
InfluencesErnest Rutherford

Moseley worked on many theories about the atomic number. This soon became known as Moseley's law in X-ray spectra. Moseley's Law helped prove many ideas in chemistry by organizing the chemical elements of the periodic table of the elements in a quite logical order based on their physics.

Moseley was shot and killed during the Battle of Gallipoli on 10 August 1915, at the age of 27. Some people say that he could have won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1916 if he was never killed.

Further reading

  • Heilbron, John L. (1974). H. G. J. Moseley: The Life and Letters of an English Physicist, 1887-1915. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-02375-7.
  • Scerri, Eric R. (2007). The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-530573-9.