Editing Hendrik Lorentz (section)

==Legacy==
Lorentz is considered one of the prime representatives of the "Second Dutch Golden Age", a period of several decades surrounding 1900 in which the natural sciences flourished in the Netherlands.<ref name="NtvN2011"/>

Richardson describes Lorentz as:

<blockquote>A man of remarkable intellectual powers. Although steeped in his own investigation of the moment, he always seemed to have in his immediate grasp its ramifications into every corner of the universe. The singular clearness of his writings provides a striking reflection of his wonderful powers in this respect. He possessed and successfully employed the mental vivacity which is necessary to follow the interplay of discussion, the insight which is required to extract those statements which illuminate the real difficulties, and the wisdom to lead the discussion among fruitful channels, and he did this so skillfully that the process was hardly perceptible.<ref name=richardson /></blockquote>

[[Martin J. Klein|M. J. Klein]] (1967) wrote of Lorentz's reputation in the 1920s:

<blockquote>For many years physicists had always been eager "to hear what Lorentz will say about it" when a new theory was advanced, and, even at seventy-two, he did not disappoint them.<ref name=Przibram/></blockquote>

[[File:Lorentz-monument Park sonsbeek Arnhem Nederland, Netherlands Hendrik Antoon Lorentz Ludwig Oswald Wenckebach.jpg|thumb|Lorentz-monument Park Sonsbeek in [[Arnhem]], the Netherlands]]
Einstein wrote of Lorentz:

{{Blockquote|1928: The enormous significance of his work consisted therein, that it forms the basis for the theory of atoms and for the general and special theories of relativity. The special theory was a more detailed expose of those concepts which are found in Lorentz's research of 1895.<ref>{{Citation
|author=Pais, Abraham
|author-link=Abraham Pais
|year=1982
|title= [[Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein]]
|location= New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=978-0-19-520438-4}}</ref><br /> 1953: For me personally he meant more than all the others I have met on my life's journey.<ref>{{cite book|author=Justin Wintle|title=Makers of Nineteenth Century Culture: 1800–1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EF2fKDpp8S8C&pg=PA375|access-date=25 July 2012|date=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-26584-3|pages=375–}}</ref>}}

Poincaré (1902) said of Lorentz's theory of electrodynamics:<ref>{{Citation
|author=Poincaré, Henri
|year=1902
|title=Science and Hypothesis
|location=London and Newcastle-on-Cyne
|publisher=The Walter Scott publishing Co.|title-link=Science and Hypothesis
}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The most satisfactory theory is that of Lorentz; it is unquestionably the theory that best explains the known facts, the one that throws into relief the greatest number of known relations. It is due to Lorentz that the results of [[Fizeau]] on the optics of moving bodies, the laws of normal and abnormal dispersion and of absorption are connected with each other. Look at the ease with which the new [[Zeeman effect|Zeeman phenomenon]] found its place, and even aided the classification of Faraday's magnetic rotation, which had defied all [[James Clerk Maxwell|Maxwell's]] efforts.|author=|title=|source=}}

[[Paul Langevin]] (1911) said of Lorentz:<ref>{{citation |first = P. |last = Langevin |author-link = Paul Langevin
|title =  The evolution of space and time
|journal = [[Scientia (Italian journal)|Scientia]] |volume = X |pages = 31–54 |year = 1911|url=http://amshistorica.unibo.it/diglib.php?inv=7&int_ptnum=108&term_ptnum=302}} (translated by J. B. Sykes, 1973).</ref>

{{Blockquote|It will be Lorentz's main claim to fame that he demonstrated that the fundamental equations of electromagnetism also allow of a group of transformations that enables them to resume the same form when a transition is made from one reference system to another. ''This group differs fundamentally from the above group as regards transformations of space and time.''''}}

Lorentz was chairman of the first [[Solvay Conference]] held in Brussels in the autumn of 1911. Shortly after the conference, Poincaré wrote an essay on quantum physics which gives an indication of Lorentz's status at the time:<ref>{{Citation
|author=Poincaré, Henri
|year=1913
|title=Last Essays
|location=New York}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|At every moment the twenty physicists from different countries could be heard talking of the [quantum mechanics] which they contrasted with the old mechanics. Now what was the old mechanics? Was it that of Newton, the one which still reigned uncontested at the close of the nineteenth century? No, it was the mechanics of Lorentz, the one dealing with the principle of relativity; the one which, hardly five years ago, seemed to be the height of boldness.|author=|title=|source=}}

In addition to the [[Nobel Prize]], Lorentz received a great many honours for his outstanding work. He was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1905|Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1905]].<ref name=frs>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|archive-date=16 March 2015|url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|publisher=[[Royal Society]]|location=London|title=Fellows of the Royal Society}}</ref> The Society awarded him their [[Rumford Medal]] in 1908 and their [[Copley Medal]] in 1918. He was elected an Honorary Member of the [[Royal Netherlands Chemical Society|Netherlands Chemical Society]] in 1912.<ref>[https://en.kncv.nl/kncv/honorary-members Honorary members] – website of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society</ref> He was an International Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]], the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]], and the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Hendrik+A.+Lorentz&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Hendrik Lorentz |url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20001346.html |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-09 |title=Hendrik Antoon Lorentz |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/hendrik-antoon-lorentz |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref>