Legend of Lord Rayleigh - Co-Discoverer of Argon Known also for Clarity and Simplicity of Diction

Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt) was a force in British physics and a President of the Royal Society.  He also won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904. 

Some of his great achievements include:

• Rayleigh Scattering - which can explain why the sky is blue
• Co-discovered argon gas (one of the so-called noble gases)
• Predicted the existence of Rayleigh waves (surface acoustic wave, which form part of seismic waves during earthquakes)

Rayleigh's intellectual background was distinctly mathematical (leading to initial research into optics and vibrating systems) and he was also known for his clarity and simplicity of diction. His eldest son became a professor of Physics at Imperial College.