When and where was Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz born?
Geertruida Luberta Lorentz entered the world on the 20th of October 1885 in Leiden, Netherlands. Her father Hendrik Lorentz held the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden University during her birth.
What did Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz study for her Ph.D. thesis?
She received her Ph.D. from Leiden University in 1912 under her father's supervision with a thesis titled On the theory of Brownian motion and related phenomena. This work applied Albert Einstein theories about random particle movement to electrical circuits containing resistance and inductance.
How did Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz contribute to noise theory?
Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz became one of the first theorists to study thermal fluctuations in electric circuits and predicted what would later be known as Johnson Nyquist noise before anyone else discovered it experimentally. She used the equipartition theorem to relate energy to thermal energy kT where k represents the Boltzmann constant while T stands for temperature.
Who was Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz married to and what did they research together?
On the 22nd of December 1910 Lorentz married Wander de Haas who became Professor of Experimental Physics at Leiden University. Together they conducted experiments challenging existing ideas about magnetism and demonstrated that James Clerk Maxwell earlier experiments failed to prove André-Marie Ampère hypothesis regarding microscopic current loops inside atoms.
What theoretical prediction did Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz make about superconductivity?
In 1925 she made a theoretical prediction regarding superconductivity before formal equations existed which outlined what would later be called the London penetration depth. This concept describes how deeply magnetic fields can penetrate into a superconductor even though the London equations were not developed until 1935 by Fritz London and Heinz London.
When and where did Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz die?
Geertruida de Haas-Lorentz died on the 2nd of January 1973 in Leiden after living to the age of 87 years old. She continued her academic career teaching physics at the Technical University of Delft until her death while also translating some of her father scientific works into German for wider European audiences.