John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

About John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh

John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, was a towering figure in 19th and early 20th-century physics, achieving the rank of #677 in historical influence. His most significant contribution to science involved his exhaustive work on the theory of light scattering, now famously known as Rayleigh scattering, which explains the blue color of the sky. Additionally, his precise measurements led to the definitive identification of Argon, a noble gas, as a new element, cementing his legacy across optics and chemistry.

Despite this profound historical importance, his modern digital footprint is disproportionately small. In 2025, Lord Rayleigh accrued only 45K Wikipedia views, placing him significantly in the 'underattention' category with an Attention Gap of -8x relative to his HPI rank. To illustrate this disconnect, a contemporary physicist like James Clerk Maxwell (HPI #881) commanded over 531K views, while even Georg Ohm (#681), with a near-identical importance score, drew 108K views.

Furthermore, the downward trend in contemporary interest is notable: his 2025 Wikipedia views declined by -23.4% year-over-year, and his momentum between Q1 and Q3 of that year dropped by a sharp -51%, suggesting his essential contributions to physics are fading from the public's immediate attention span.