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George Francis FitzGerald Quotes

Prof George Francis FitzGerald FRS FRSE was an Irish professor of "natural and experimental philosophy" at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, during the last quarter of the 19th century. FitzGerald is known for his work in electromagnetic theory and for the Lorentz–FitzGerald contraction, which became an integral part of Einstein's special theory of relativity. A crater on the far side of the Moon is named for him, as is a building at Trinity College, Dublin.

✵ 3. August 1851 – 22. February 1901
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George Francis FitzGerald Quotes

“If Universities do not study useless subjects, who will?”

George Francis FitzGerald

[The Value of Useless Studies, Nature, 25 February 1892, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000047662452;view=1up;seq=433] (p. 392)

“When two surfaces at different temperatures are in presence of one another with a gas between them, there exists a force tending to separate them. The assumption of this force explains a very great number of phenomena, including the motion of the arms of Mr. Crooke's radiometers and the so-called spheroidal state of liquids.”

George Francis FitzGerald

March 1878 quoted in [The Scientific Writings of the Late George Francis FitzGerald, https://books.google.com/books?id=2le7lpdAJ5EC&pg=PA18] (p. 18)

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