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John Archibald Wheeler
Born	July 9, 1911(1911-07-09) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Died	April 13, 2008 (aged 96) Hightstown, New Jersey, U.S.
Residence	United States
Nationality	U.S.
Fields	Physicist
Institutions	University of North Carolina Princeton University University of Texas at Austin
Alma mater	Johns Hopkins University
Doctoral advisor	Karl Herzfeld
Doctoral students	Demetrios Christodoulou Richard Feynman Jacob Bekenstein Robert Geroch Bei-Lok Hu John R. Klauder Charles Misner Milton Plesset Kip Thorne Arthur Wightman Hugh Everett Bill Unruh
Known for	Nuclear fission Geometrodynamics General relativity Unified field theory
Notable awards	Enrico Fermi Award (1968) Oersted Medal (1983) Albert Einstein Medal (1988) Matteucci Medal (1993) Wolf Prize (1997)

John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911–April 13, 2008) was an eminent American theoretical physicist. One of the later collaborators of Albert Einstein, he tried to achieve Einstein's vision of a unified field theory. He is also known for having coined the terms black hole and wormhole. Image File history File links Gnome_globe_current_event. ... is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... is the 103rd day of the year (104th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... Hightstown highlighted in Mercer County. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... University of Texas redirects here. ... Alma mater is Latin for nourishing mother. It was used in ancient Rome as a title for the mother goddess, and in Medieval Christianity for the Virgin Mary. ... The Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876, is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ... Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld (February 24, 1892–June 3, 1978) was an Austrian-American physicist. ... Demetrios Christodoulou (born October 19, 1951) is a mathematical physicist, well known in the field of general relativity for his proof, together with Sergiu Klainerman, of the nonlinear stability of the Minkowski vacuum. ... Image File history File links Nobel_prize_medal. ... This article is about the physicist. ... Jacob David Bekenstein (born May 1, 1947) is a physicist who has contributed to the foundation of black hole thermodynamics and to other aspects of the connections between information and gravitation. ... Charles W. Misner is one of the authors of Gravitation. Kip Thorne John Archibald Wheeler http://www. ... Kip S. Thorne Professor Kip Stephen Thorne, Ph. ... Arthur Strong Wightman is an American mathematical physicist. ... Hugh Everett III (November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation(MWI) of quantum physics, which he called his relative state formulation. ... Bill Unruh teaching in UBC William G. Unruh (born August 21, 1945) is a Canadian physicist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, who discovered the Unruh effect. ... For the generation of electrical power by fission, see Nuclear power plant. ... In theoretical physics, geometrodynamics generally denotes a program of reformulation and unification which was enthusiastically promoted by John Archibald Wheeler in the 1960s. ... For a generally accessible and less technical introduction to the topic, see Introduction to general relativity. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Enrico Fermi Award is a U.S. government Presidential award honoring scientists of international stature for their lifetime achievement in the development, use, or production of energy. ... The Oersted Medal recognizes notable contributions to the teaching of physics. ... The Albert Einstein Medal is an award presented by the Albert Einstein Society in Bern. ... The Matteucci Medal was established to award physicists for their fundamental contributions. ... The Wolf Prize has been awarded annually since 1978 to living scientists and artists for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples . ... is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 103rd day of the year (104th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... Theoretical physics attempts to understand the world by making a model of reality, used for rationalizing, explaining, predicting physical phenomena through a physical theory. There are three types of theories in physics; mainstream theories, proposed theories and fringe theories. ... “Einstein” redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Black hole (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Wormhole (disambiguation). ...

Biography

John Archibald Wheeler was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from the Baltimore City College high school in 1926^[1] and received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1933. His dissertation, under the supervision of Karl Herzfeld, was on the theory of the dispersion and absorption of helium. The Jacksonville skyline and the Acosta Bridge. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... Baltimore City College (BCC), also referred to as The Castle on the Hill, and more commonly as City, is a public secondary school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. that focuses on the humanities and liberal arts. ... The Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876, is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ... Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld (February 24, 1892–June 3, 1978) was an Austrian-American physicist. ...

He was a professor of physics at Princeton University from 1938 until 1976 and the director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at the University of Texas at Austin from 1976 to 1986. At the time of his death, he had returned to Princeton as a professor emeritus. Professor Wheeler's graduate students include Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne, and Hugh Everett. Unlike some scholars, he gave a high priority to teaching. Even after he had achieved fame, he continued to teach freshman and sophomore physics, saying that the young minds were the most important. Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... University of Texas redirects here. ... This article is about the physicist. ... Kip S. Thorne Professor Kip Stephen Thorne, Ph. ... Hugh Everett III (November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation(MWI) of quantum physics, which he called his relative state formulation. ...

Wheeler made important contributions to theoretical physics. In 1937, he introduced the S-matrix, which became an indispensable tool in particle physics. He was a pioneer in the theory of nuclear fission, along with Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi. In 1939, he collaborated with Bohr on the liquid drop model of nuclear fission. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Thousands of particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ... For the generation of electrical power by fission, see Nuclear power plant. ... Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. ... Fermi redirects here. ... The liquid drop model is a model in nuclear physics which treats the nucleus as a drop of incompressible nuclear fluid, first proposed by George Gamow. ... For the generation of electrical power by fission, see Nuclear power plant. ...

Together with many other leading physicists, during World War II, Wheeler interrupted his academic career to participate in the development of the U.S. atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project at the Hanford site, where reactors were constructed to produce the chemical element plutonium for atomic bombs. Even before the Hanford site started up the B-Pile (the first of three reactors), he had anticipated that the accumulation of "fission product poisons" would eventually impede the ongoing nuclear chain reaction by absorbing neutrons, and he correctly deduced (by calculating the half-life decay rates) that an isotope of xenon (Xe¹³⁵) would be most responsible.^[2] He went on to work on the development of the American hydrogen bomb under Project Matterhorn. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... This article is about the World War II nuclear project. ... Hanford Site plutonium production reactors along the Columbia River during the Manhattan Project. ... This article is about the radioactive element. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. ...

After concluding his Manhattan Project work, Wheeler returned to Princeton to resume his academic career. In 1957, while working on extensions to general relativity, he introduced the word wormhole to describe hypothetical tunnels in space-time. For a generally accessible and less technical introduction to the topic, see Introduction to general relativity. ... For other uses, see Wormhole (disambiguation). ...

In the 1950s, he formulated geometrodynamics, a program of physical and ontological reduction of every physical phenomenon, such as gravitation and electromagnetism, to the geometrical properties of a curved space-time. Aiming at a systematical identification of matter with space, geometrodynamics was often characterized as a continuation of the philosophy of nature as conceived by Descartes and Spinoza. Wheeler's geometrodynamics, however, failed to explain some important physical phenomena, such as the existence of fermions (electrons, muons, etc.) or that of gravitational singularities. Wheeler therefore abandoned this theory as somewhat fruitless in the early 1970s. In theoretical physics, geometrodynamics generally denotes a program of reformulation and unification which was enthusiastically promoted by John Archibald Wheeler in the 1960s. ... Gravity redirects here. ... Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a force on particles that possess the property of electric charge, and is in turn affected by the presence and motion of those particles. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ... Baruch Spinoza Benedictus de Spinoza (November 24, 1632 - February 21, 1677), named Baruch Spinoza by his synagogue elders and known as Bento de Spinoza or Bento dEspiñoza in the community in which he grew up. ... Fermions, named after Enrico Fermi, are particles which form totally-antisymmetric composite quantum states. ... A gravitational singularity occurs when an astrophysical model, typically based on general relativity, predicts a point of infinite space-time curvature. ...

For a few decades, general relativity had not been considered a very respectable field of physics, being detached from experiment. Wheeler was a key figure in the revival of the subject, leading the school at Princeton, whilst Sciama and Zel'dovich developed the subject in Cambridge and Moscow. The work of Wheeler and his students contributed greatly to the golden age of general relativity. For a generally accessible and less technical introduction to the topic, see Introduction to general relativity. ... Dennis William Sciama (November 18, 1926 - December 18, 1999) was a British physicist who played an important role in the Golden Age of general relativity. ... Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich (Russian:Яков Борисович Зельдович) (March 8, 1914 – December 2, 1987) was a prolific Soviet physicist. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Simulated view of a black hole in front of the Milky Way.

His work in general relativity included the theory of gravitational collapse; he coined the term black hole in 1967 during a talk at the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS).^[3] He was also a pioneer in the field of quantum gravity with his development (with Bryce DeWitt) of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation or, as he calls it, the "wave function of the Universe." Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2560x2048, 1172 KB) Summary Description: A Black Hole of ten solar masses as seen from a distance of 600km with the Milky Way in the background (horizontal camera opening angle: 90°) Source: Gallery of Tempolimit Lichtgeschwindigkeit Date: 14. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2560x2048, 1172 KB) Summary Description: A Black Hole of ten solar masses as seen from a distance of 600km with the Milky Way in the background (horizontal camera opening angle: 90°) Source: Gallery of Tempolimit Lichtgeschwindigkeit Date: 14. ... For other uses, see Black hole (disambiguation). ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), at Columbia University in New York City, is a division of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Sciences Directorate and a unit of the Columbia University Earth Institute. ... Quantum gravity is the field of theoretical physics attempting to unify quantum mechanics, which describes three of the fundamental forces of nature, with general relativity, the theory of the fourth fundamental force: gravity. ... Dr. Bryce S. DeWitt (January 8, 1923—September 23, 2004) was a theoretical physicist best known for his role in formulating the fundamental Wheeler_deWitt equation. ... In theoretical physics, the Wheeler-deWitt equation is an equation that a wave function of the Universe should satisfy in a theory of quantum gravity. ...

Recognizing Wheeler's colorful way with words, characterized by such confections as "mass without mass", the festschrift honoring his 60th birthday was fittingly entitled Magic Without Magic: John Archibald Wheeler: A collection of essays in honor of his sixtieth birthday, Ed: John R. Klauder, (W. H. Freeman, 1972, ISBN 0-7167-0337-8). In academia, a Festschrift (; plural, Festschriften, ) is a book honouring a respected academic. ...

John Wheeler was the driving force behind the voluminous general relativity textbook Gravitation, co-written with Charles W. Misner and Kip Thorne. Its timely appearance during the golden age of general relativity and its comprehensiveness made it the most influential relativity textbook for a generation. A book on gravitation (often considered the Bible by researchers for its prominence) by Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, and John Archibald Wheeler. ... Charles W. Misner is one of the authors of Gravitation. He has also invented Misner space, a topology and relativity-related mathematical structure. ... Kip S. Thorne Professor Kip Stephen Thorne, Ph. ...

In 1979, Wheeler spoke to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), asking it to expel parapsychology, which had been admitted ten years earlier at the request of Margaret Mead. He called it a pseudoscience (Gardner 1981:185ff). His move was turned down, and the Parapsychological Association remained a member of the AAAS. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education for the betterment of all humanity. ... Early parapsychological research employed the use of Zener cards in experiments designed to test for possible telepathic communication. ... Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901, Philadelphia – November 15, 1978, New York City) was an American cultural anthropologist. ... A typical 18th century phrenology chart. ... The Parapsychological Association was formed in 1957 as a professional society for parapsychologists following an initiative by J.B. Rhine. ...

Wheeler was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1997. The Wolf Prize has been awarded annually since 1978 to living scientists and artists for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples . ...

Wheeler is almost metaphysical in speculating that the laws of physics may be evolving in a manner analogous to evolution by natural selection in biology. "How does something arise from nothing?", he asks about the existence of space and time (Princeton Physics News, 2006). He also coined the term the Participatory Anthropic Principle (PAP), a version of a Strong Anthropic Principle. From a transcript of a radio interview on "The anthropic universe"^[4]: In physics and cosmology, the anthropic principle states that we should take into account the constraints that our existence as observers imposes on the sort of universe that we could observe. ...

Wheeler: We are participators in bringing into being not only the near and here but the far away and long ago. We are in this sense, participators in bringing about something of the universe in the distant past and if we have one explanation for what's happening in the distant past why should we need more?
Martin Redfern: Many don't agree with John Wheeler, but if he's right then we and presumably other conscious observers throughout the universe, are the creators — or at least the minds that make the universe manifest.

On April 13, 2008, John Wheeler died of pneumonia at the age of 96 in Hightstown, New Jersey.^[5] is the 103rd day of the year (104th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about human pneumonia. ... Hightstown highlighted in Mercer County. ...

Books by Wheeler

• Wheeler, John Archibald (1962). Geometrodynamics. New York: Academic Press. DOI:10.1103. 
• Misner, Charles W.; Kip S. Thorne, John Archibald Wheeler (September 1973). Gravitation. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-0344-0. 
• Some Men and Moments in the History of Nuclear Physics: The Interplay of Colleagues and Motivations (1979). University of Minnesota Press
• A Journey Into Gravity and Spacetime (1990). Scientific American Library. W.H. Freeman & Company 1999 reprint: ISBN 0-7167-6034-7
• Spacetime Physics: Introduction to Special Relativity (1992). W. H. Freeman, ISBN 0-7167-2327-1
• At Home in the Universe (1994). American Institute of Physics 1995 reprint: ISBN 1-56396-500-3
• Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics (1998). New York: W.W. Norton & Co, hardcover: ISBN 0-393-04642-7, paperback: ISBN 0-393-31991-1 — autobiography and memoir.
• Exploring Black Holes: Introduction to General Relativity (2000). Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-38423-X
• Law Without Law — theorizes experiments utilizing photons from distant locations in the universe, imaged using galaxy clusters as lenses, but which are detected using apparatus for quantum entanglement, thereby influencing history billions of years in the past [1].

A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... A book on gravitation (often considered the Bible by researchers for its prominence) by Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, and John Archibald Wheeler. ... It has been suggested that Quantum coherence be merged into this article or section. ...

Bibliography

• Update on John Archibald Wheeler, Princeton Physics News, Volume 2, Issue 1, Winter, 2006 Princeton University

See also

• Genealogy of theoretical physicists
• List of theoretical physicists
• Holographic principle

Wikinews has related news:

Physicist John Wheeler is dead at 96

It is possible to build an academic genealogy of researchers and scholars in theoretical physics by following the pedigree of their thesis advisors. ... The following is a partial list of theoretical physicists: // Pythagoras^* (circa 569–475 BCE) Democritus° (circa 460 BCE) Archimedesº* (287–212 BCE) Nicolaus Copernicusº (1473-1543) Galileo Galileiº* (1564–1642) Johannes Keplerº (1571-1630) René Descartes‡^ (1596–1650) Blaise Pascal^ (1623 - 1662) Isaac Newton^*º (1642-1727) Gottfried Leibniz^ (1646–1716... The holographic principle is a speculative conjecture about quantum gravity theories, proposed by Gerard t Hooft and improved and promoted by Leonard Susskind, claiming that all of the information contained in a volume of space can be represented by a theory which lives in the boundary of that region. ... Image File history File links WikiNews-Logo. ... Wikinews is a free-content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ...

References

•   Martin Gardner (1981). Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-144-4. 

Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz and publishes scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those of a secular humanist or scientific skepticism nature. ...

Notes

2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 105th day of the year (106th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• John Wheeler video at the Peoples Archive
• Princeton University obituary
• John Wheeler
• Science Show - 13-09-2003 Profile of John Wheeler
• Law Without Law
• Wheeler's Classic Delayed Choice Experiment
• Annotated bibliography for John Wheeler from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Princeton Physics News Volume 2, Issue 1 Winter 2006, (see p. 5)
• Wheeler's world - It from Bit by Jack Sarfatti
• Oral History interview transcript with John Archibald Wheeler 6 December 1993, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives