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photoelectric effect
noun
: the emission of free electrons from a metal surface when light strikes it
Examples of photoelectric effect in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
To see how a semiclassical theory can explain the photoelectric effect, imagine a kid on a swing.
—Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024
This will later be called the photoelectric effect.
—Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024
It was eventually disproved—thanks to the famous Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887 and Albert Einstein's development of special relativity and his paper on the photoelectric effect in 1905 (his annus mirabilis).
—Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 4 Feb. 2023
There are more fundamental possibilities, too, such as more detailed explorations of Einstein’s famed photoelectric effect, in which a photon impinges on metal, causing the metal to emit an electron.
—Daniel Garisto, Scientific American, 3 Oct. 2023
In his first paper, Einstein applied German physicist Max Planck’s quantum theory to light to explain the photoelectric effect.
—USA TODAY, 31 May 2023
Hertz’s discovery in 1887 of the photoelectric effect and the longstanding observation that Mercury’s orbit precesses around the Sun faster than predicted.
—The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 12 Sep. 2022
Two years later, Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics, not for general relativity, but for his discovery of the photoelectric effect.
—Mark Barna, Discover Magazine, 16 Dec. 2022
Other papers that year were on Brownian motion, suggesting the existence of molecules and atoms, and the photoelectric effect, showing that light is made of particles later called photons.
—Mark Barna, Discover Magazine, 16 Dec. 2022
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Word History
First Known Use
1892, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of photoelectric effect was
in 1892
Dictionary Entries Near photoelectric effect
Cite this Entry
“Photoelectric effect.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/photoelectric%20effect. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Kids Definition
photoelectric effect
noun
: the giving off of free electrons from a metal surface when light strikes it
More from Merriam-Webster on photoelectric effect
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about photoelectric effect
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