Lord Kelvin (1824 - 1907)

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that
heat and motion were combined, which now is taken as second nature. At the time,
heat was thought to have been a fluid of some kind.

Kelvin also maintained an interest in the age of the sun and calculated values
for it. He assumed that the sun produced its radiant energy from the
gravitational potential of matter falling into the sun. In collaboration with
Hermann von Helmholtz, he calculated and published in 1853 a value of 50 million
years. He also had an interest in the age of the earth, and he calculated that
the earth was a maximum of 400 million years old. These calculations were based
on the rate of cooling of a globe of matter after first solidification occurs (
such as the beginning of the earth). He also calculated that molecular motion
stops at -273 degrees Celsius. He called this temperature absolute zero.

Kelvin started work in 1854 on the project of laying transatlantic cables. His
idea was that electrical current flow was similar to that of heat flow, and ...

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