Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Compton's 'Crucial Test' - Theoretical Preconceptions And Experimental Interpretation, Roger H. Stuewer

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Arthur Holly Compton, as a result of his own research and confidence in the validity of classical electrodynamics, was convinced in 1921 that homogeneous x-rays and gamma rays could be affected in only two possible ways when passing through matter: either they gave rise to "truly scattered" radiation of the same wavelength as that of the incident rays, or they excited "fluorescent" radiation of a longer wavelength. When Compton was led to carry out experiments using homogeneous x-rays and actually found secondary radiation of longer wavelength, he regarded his result as a crucial test between the "truly scattered" and the …