Alternate Name
Born Halmstad, Sweden, 8 November 1854
Died Lund, Sweden, 28 December 1919
Swedish physicist Johannes Rydberg calculated the amount of energy required to unbind the single electron of hydrogen, and this amount (13.6 eV) is often given his name as the Rydberg constant (alternatively 109,678 cm−1). More recently, the phrase Rydberg matter has been used to describe neutral gas in which the electrons are located in states of very high excitation far from their nuclei.
Rydberg was the son of Maria Beata Andersson and Sven R. Rydberg, a local tradesman and boatyard operator, who died when his son was four. He married Lydia E. M. Carlsson in 1886, and they had a son and two daughters.
Rydberg studied and worked all his life at Lund University. He first went there in 1873 after completing his gymnasium studies in Halmstad; he was awarded the Ph.D. degree in mathematics in 1879, becoming a docent(lecturer) in mathematics in the following year. His...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Selected References
Bohr, N. (1954). “Rydberg’s Discovery of the Spectral Laws.” In Proceedings of the Rydberg Centennial Conference on Atomic Spectroscopy, edited by Bengt Edlén, pp. 15–21. Acta Universitatis Lundensis, 50. Lund: Gleerup. (Niels Bohr assessed the use of Rydberg’s work for the construction of quantum theories of matter.)
Dörries, Matthias (1995). “Heinrich Kayser as Philologist of Physics.” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences 26: 1–33. (For an evaluation of Heinrich Kayser and Carl Runge.)
Hamilton, Paul C. (1993). “Reaching Out: Janne Rydberg’s Struggle for Recognition.” In Center on the Periphery: Historical Aspects of 20th-Century Swedish Physics, edited by Svante Lindqvist, pp. 269–292. Canton, Massachusetts: Science History Publications. (For a discussion of the difficulties faced by Rydberg to obtain official recognition of his work.)
Rydberg, J. R. (1890). “Recherches sur la constitution des spectres d’émission des éléments chimiques.” Kungliga Svenska vetenskapsakademiens handlingar, n.s., 23. (Rydberg’s major work.)
— (1890). “On the Structure of the Line-Spectra of the Chemical Elements.” Philosophical Magazine, 5th ser., 29: 331–337.
Siegbahn, Manne (1952). “Janne Rydberg, 1854–1919.” In Swedish Men of Science, 1650–1950, edited by Sten Lindroth, pp. 214–218. Stockholm: Swedish Institute, Almqvist and Wiksell.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bigg, C. (2014). Rydberg, Johannes Robert. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1203
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1203
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-9916-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9917-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics