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Radó von Kövesligethy

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Radó Von Kövesligethy portrait

Radó von Kövesligethy (in Hungarian usage, Kövesligethy Radó) (1 September 1862 in Verona, Austria, Austro-Hungarian Empire – 11 October 1934 in Budapest, Hungary), was a Hungarian physicist, astronomer and geophysicist.

Kövesligethy developed a spectral equation for black body radiation for the continuous spectra of celestial bodies which had the following properties: the spectral distribution of radiation depends only on the temperature, the total irradiated energy is finite, the wavelength of the intensity maximum is inversely proportional to the temperature.

His work was published in 1885 in Hungarian and in 1890 in German, 15 years before[1] the work by Planck[2] and eight years before Wien's work on black body radiation).[3]

Using his spectral equation, he estimated the temperature of several celestial bodies, including the Sun.[4]

He also formulated laws to establish the epicenters of earthquakes.

He was an assistant to Loránd Eötvös.

In 1895, he was elected as a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and later (1909) as a full member.[5]

His first and most outstanding disciple was the astrophysicist Béla Harkányi.

Sources

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  1. ^ "Specola Guestbook | March 27, 1914: Radó von Kövesligethy". 31 May 2020.
  2. ^ Balázs et al.:Astr.Nach/ AA 328 (2007), No 7 Short contributions AG 2007 Würzburg
  3. ^ Magda Vargha; Lajos G. Balazs (2008). "Kövesligethy's spectroscopic studies" (PDF). austriaca.at. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  4. ^ Lajos G. Balázs (2004-01-01). "Theoretical astrophysics in the 19th century (Homage to Radó von Kövesligethy)". Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  5. ^ Kövesligethy Rado. The Eötvös Mathematical and Physical Society collective obituary. Mathematical and Physical Journal, 40 concludes. (1934), published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Eötvös L. Mat. and Phys. Society. 91-92nd old.