6 Quotes & Sayings By William Thomson

William Thomson (1842-1922) was an American chemist, physicist, and educator. He is most famous for his study of the thermodynamic properties of gases, in particular his 1867 discovery that the pressure of a gas is proportional to its absolute temperature. He was the first person to use the word "kinetic" in this sense. Thomson was also responsible for introducing the concept of chemical potential into chemical thermodynamics, which was then derided by Abraham Lincoln Read more

Thomson received numerous awards and honors during his lifetime. He was elected to serve as President of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society.

1
When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarely, in your thoughts advanced to the stage of science. William Thomson
The steam engine has done much more for science than...
2
The steam engine has done much more for science than science has done for the steam engine. William Thomson
Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and...
3
Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense. William Thomson
4
Questions of personal priority, however interesting they may be to the persons concerned, sink into insignificance in the prospect of any gain of deeper insight into the secrets of nature. William Thomson
5
There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement. William Thomson