Global InformationAdolfo Bartoli information
Adolfo Bartoli (19 March 1851 – 18 July 1896) was an Italian physicist, who is best known for introducing the concept of radiation pressure from thermodynamical considerations.
Born in Florence, Bartoli studied physics and mathematics at the University of Pisa until 1874. He was professor of physics at the Technical Institute of Arezzo from 1876, at the University of Sassari from 1878, at the Technical Institute of Firenze from 1879, at the University of Catania from 1886 to 1893, and at the University of Pavia from 1893.
In 1874 James Clerk Maxwell found out that the existence of tensions in the ether, in other words radiation pressure, follows from his electromagnetic theory. [1] In 1876 Bartoli derived the existence of radiation pressure from thermodynamics, and his derivation influenced Boltzmann.[2][3][4]
Like how the thermodynamics of gas is independent of microscopic details of what gas is, his derivation does not depend on a theory of what light is, such as Maxwell's electromagnetism. In contrast, Maxwell predicted radiation pressure directly from his theory of electromagnetism. Therefore, radiation pressure was also called "Maxwell-Bartoli pressure".
Later the radiation pressure played an important role in the work of Albert Einstein in connection with mass–energy equivalence and the photoelectric effect. Einstein lived in Pavia at that time (1895), when Bartoli held the Physics chair at the local University. However, it is unknown whether Einstein was directly influenced by Bartoli.
Bartoli died in Pavia in 1896.
- ^ Maxwell, J.C. (1873), A Treatise on electricity and magnetism, Vol. 2, § 792, London: Macmillan & Co., p. 391
- ^ Bartoli, A. (1876–1884), "Il calorico raggiante e il secondo principio di termodynamica" (PDF), Nuovo Cimento, 15 (1): 196–202, Bibcode:1884NCim...15..193B, doi:10.1007/bf02737234, S2CID 121845138, archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-17
- ^ Bartoli, Adolfo (1876). Sopra i movimenti prodotti dalla luce e dal calore: e sopra il radiometro di Crookes (in Italian). Coi tipi dei successori le Monnier.
- ^ Carazza, Bruno; Kragh, Helge (March 1989). "Adolfo Bartoli and the problem of radiant heat". Annals of Science. 46 (2): 183–194. doi:10.1080/00033798900200191. ISSN 0003-3790.