PHYSICIST

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

1824 - 1907

Photo of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

Icon of person William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, where he undertook significant research and mathematical analysis of electricity, was instrumental in the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and contributed significantly to unifying physics, which was then in its infancy of development as an emerging academic discipline. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883 and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin has received more than 2,016,428 page views. His biography is available in 85 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 81 in 2019). William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin is the 51st most popular physicist (up from 70th in 2019), the 141st most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 239th in 2019) and the 10th most popular British Physicist.

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin is most famous for his work in thermodynamics and the invention of the Kelvin scale.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.0M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 72.70

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 85

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 9.18

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.55

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 51 out of 851. Before him are Philipp Lenard, William Gilbert, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Léon Foucault, Christian Doppler, and Barry Barish. After him are Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Wilhelm Wien, Ernst Mach, Gabriel Lippmann, Thomas Young, and Charles Édouard Guillaume.

Most Popular Physicists in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1824, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 5. Before him are Bedřich Smetana, Anton Bruckner, Alexandre Dumas fils, and Gustav Kirchhoff. After him are Eugène Boudin, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Maria Alexandrovna, Paul Broca, Pierre Janssen, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and Wilkie Collins. Among people deceased in 1907, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 5. Before him are Dmitri Mendeleev, Edvard Grieg, Klara Hitler, and Sully Prudhomme. After him are Oscar II of Sweden, Henri Moissan, Hector Malot, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Alfred Jarry, Giosuè Carducci, and Pierre Janssen.

Others Born in 1824

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Others Deceased in 1907

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 141 out of 8,785. Before him are William of Ockham (1285), Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830), George IV of the United Kingdom (1762), Roald Dahl (1916), Michael Caine (1933), and William Blake (1757). After him are Cat Stevens (1948), Howard Carter (1874), Eric Clapton (1945), Mary Boleyn (1499), Jane Birkin (1946), and Æthelstan (895).

Others born in United Kingdom

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among PHYSICISTS In United Kingdom

Among physicists born in United Kingdom, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 10. Before him are James Prescott Joule (1818), Robert Hooke (1635), James Clerk Maxwell (1831), Paul Dirac (1902), J. J. Thomson (1856), and William Gilbert (1544). After him are Thomas Young (1773), James Chadwick (1891), C. F. Powell (1903), Charles Glover Barkla (1877), Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869), and Peter Higgs (1929).

British born Physicists

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous