Energy and momentum are conserved in the collision (Figure \PageIndex{2}) He won a Nobel Prize in 1929 for the discovery of this scattering, now called the Compton effect, because it helped prove ...Energy and momentum are conserved in the collision (Figure \PageIndex{2}) He won a Nobel Prize in 1929 for the discovery of this scattering, now called the Compton effect, because it helped prove that photon momentum is given by Compton saw the effects of photon momentum because he was observing x rays, which have a small wavelength and a relatively large momentum, interacting with the lightest of particles, the electron.
