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

That honor went to his discovery of the photoelectric effect. —Alex Knapp, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2025

Einstein was eventually vindicated, but not on the strength of the photoelectric effect alone. —Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024

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

Word History

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for photoelectric effect

• affect
• aspect
• bedecked
• bisect
• collect
• connect
• correct
• deflect
• detect
• direct
• dissect
• eject

Kids Definition

photoelectric effect

noun

: the giving off of free electrons from a metal surface when light strikes it