John Henry Poynting: Difference between revisions

| name = John Poynting

| image = John Henry Poynting.jpg

| image_size = 240px

| caption = John Henry Poynting (1852–1914)

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1852|9|9}}

| birth_place = [[Monton]], Lancashire, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1914|3|30|1852|9|9}}

| death_place = {{nowrap|[[Birmingham]], England}}

|residence citizenship = England

|citizenship nationality = English

|nationality ethnicity = English

|ethnicity field = [[Physicist]]

|work_institutions alma_mater = {{ubl|[[MasonUniversity Scienceof Cambridge]]|[[Owens College]], (now [[University of BirminghamManchester]])}}

|influences footnotes = [[Edward Routh]]=

'''John Henry Poynting''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]<ref>{{acad|id=PNTN872JH|name=Poynting, John Henry}}</ref> (9 September 1852{{spaced ndash}}30 March 1914<ref>GRO Register of Births: DEC 1852 8c 391 BARTON – John Henry Poynting, mmn = unknown</ref><ref>GRO Register of Deaths: MAR 1914 6d 128 KING'S N. – John Henry Poynting, aged 61</ref>) was an English [[physicist]]. He was athe first professor of [[physics]] at [[Mason Science College]], from 1880 to 1900, and then the successor institution, the [[University of Birmingham]] until his death.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/physics/about/history/index.aspx|title=History of the School of Physics and Astronomy}}</ref>

Poynting was the youngest son of Thomas Elford Poynting, a [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] minister. He was born at the parsonage of the Monton Unitarian Chapel in Eccles, Lancashire, where (his father servingserved as minister there from 1846 to 1878.) In his boyhood, he was educated at the nearby school operated by his father. From 1867 to 1872, he attended [[Owens College]], now the [[University of Manchester]], where his physics teachers included [[Osborne Reynolds]] and [[Balfour Stewart]]. From 1872 to 1876 he was a student at the [[Cambridge University of Cambridge]], where he attained high honours in mathematics after taking grinds with [[Edward Routh]]. In the late 1870s he worked in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] at Cambridge under [[James Clerk Maxwell]].<ref>[http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/hp/Archive/Newsletters/page_22101.html John Henry Poynting's biography at Institute of Physics].</ref>

In the late 1870s, he worked in the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] at Cambridge under [[James Clerk Maxwell]].<ref>{{acad|id=PNTN872JH|name=Poynting, John Henry}}</ref> In 1880, he became the first professor of physics at the [[University of Birmingham]]. He was the developer and [[:wikt:eponym|eponym]] of the [[Poynting vector]], which describes the direction and magnitude of [[Electromagnetism|electromagnetic]] energy flow and is used in the [[Poynting theorem]], a statement about energy conservation for [[electric field|electric]] and [[magnetic field|magnetic]] fields. This work was first published in 1884. He performed a measurement of [[Isaac Newton|Newton's]] [[gravitational constant]] by innovative means during 1893. In 1903 he was the first to realise that the [[Sun]]'s radiation can draw in small particles towards it:<ref>{{cite book

Poynting and the Nobel prizewinner [[J. J. Thomson]] co-authored a multi-volume undergraduate physics textbook, which was in print for about 50 years and was in widespread use during the first third of the 20th century.<ref>For a lengthy though incomplete listing of the editions of Poynting and Thomson's ''Text-book of Physics'' see [http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Apoynting+au%3Athomson+ti%3Aphysics&fq=&dblist=638&se=yr&sd=asc&fc=yr:_50&qt=show_more_yr%3A Worldcat.org].</ref> Poynting wrote most of it.<ref>Reported in the biography of JJ Thomson by Davis & Falconer, previewable at [https://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=pBsg0DaZZQAC&pg=PA7 Google Book Search Preview].</ref>

He was awarded an [[honorary degree|honorary]] MSc in Pure Science in 1901 by [[Birmingham University]].<ref>{{cite web|title=University campus Blue Plaque Trail|url=http://bhamalumni.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1111&frcrld=1|publisher=Birmingham University|accessdate=12 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006065509/http://bhamalumni.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1111&frcrld=1|archive-date=6 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Poynting lived at 11 St Augustine's Road, [[Edgbaston]] with his family and servants for some years. He previously lived at 66 Beaufort Road, [[Edgbaston]] (demolished) and died of a diabetic coma{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}}, aged 61, at 10 Ampton Road, Edgbaston in 1914. In 1880, he married Maria Adney Cropper. He was survived by his widow, a son, and two daughters.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Poynting, John Henry|magazine=Who's Who|year=1914|page=1647|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3453342;view=1up;seq=1731}}</ref>

[[Impact crater|Crater]]s on [[Poynting (Martian crater)|Mars]] and the [[Poynting (lunar crater)|Moon]] are named in his honour, as is the main Physicsphysics building at the [[University of Birmingham]] and the departmental society there, the [[Poynting Physical Society]].

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