What is Arthur Holly Compton famous for?
I am primarily known for my experimental demonstration that X-rays, like visible light, exhibit particle-like behavior. This discovery, termed the Compton effect, showed that when an X-ray photon collides with an electron, it behaves as if it were a tiny billiard ball, transferring energy and momentum. The evidence clearly showed a change in the X-ray's wavelength, which could only be explained by considering light as composed of discrete quanta, or photons. This was a pivotal moment in establishing the wave-particle duality of light and earned me the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. My work, detailed in 'The Compton Effect: A Study of X-Ray Scattering,' solidified this fundamental aspect of quantum mechanics.
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