Chemistry: This Day in Science History - August 8 - Paul Dirac

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This Day in Science History - August 8 - Paul Dirac Aug 7th 2011, 22:05 August 8th is the birthday of one of the founders of quantum electrodynamics, Paul Dirac. Dirac was an English physicist who outlined the mathematics behind relating atomic theory to relativity. He derived the wave equation for relativistic electrons and electron spin. Physics underwent a fundamental change in the early part of the 20th Century away from Newton's physics. Einstein showed Newton's physics failed at speeds approaching the speed of light and introduced relativity while Schr�dinger found Newton failed on the microscopic level and introduced quantum mechanics. Dirac was instrumental in uniting the two. Dirac's equation explained why electrons spin and are magnetic. It also postulated the existence of negative energy, or anti-matter solutions to the wave equation. The anti-matter electron would soon be discovered by Carl Anderson and called a positron. This discovery would cement Dirac's place in physics and earn him part of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics. Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.

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