Author Topic: ~ Famous Physicists ~  (Read 5096 times)

Offline MysteRy

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~ Famous Physicists ~
« on: July 27, 2014, 11:14:36 AM »
Famous Physicists

The field of physics deals with the immutable laws that govern the entire universe. Some of the greatest names in this discipline include Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Niels Bohr, just to name a few. Their contributions along with the important discoveries of others have given us a better understanding of our world. Here is a list that includes some of the most famous physicists throughout history in order of the notoriety of their work.



Albert Einstein (1885-1962)



Born: Mar 14, 1879 in Ulm, Kingdom of Wurttemberg, German Empire

Died: Apr 18, 1955 (at age 76) in Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.

Nationality: German, Austrian, Swiss, American

Famous For: Photoelectric effect, General relativity and special relativity, Mass-energy equivalence, Theory of Brownian Motion, Bose–Einstein statistics, Einstein field equations, Bose–Einstein correlations, Bose-Einstein condensate, Unified Field Theory and EPR paradox

Awards:Time Person of the Century (1999), Max Planck Medal (1929), Copley Medal (1925), Nobel Prize in Physics (1921), and Matteucci Medal (1921).

The name Einstein and the word genius have become almost synonymous ever since the theoretical physicist unveiled his theory of relativity. Combined with quantum mechanics, these form the basis of modern physics. Einstein is also responsible for perhaps the best known formula in history, E = mc2. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.

Early Years and Personal Life

Albert Einstein was born on March 14th, 1879 in the German city of Ulm. His father Hermann was a salesman and engineer. A year after he was born, his family relocated to Munich where his father and uncle established an electrical equipment manufacturing company. This event in his early life may have set the stage for his interest in science and mathematics. His father would share his engineering knowledge with the young Albert who thrived on learning about how things worked.

Albert’s formal education began with him attending catholic schools even though he was of Jewish descent. His family did not actively practice the Jewish faith. Over the years his education was a varied one and he never hid his disdain for organized teaching. He attended several different institutions of learning in a number of locations.

Einstein married a woman he had met at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. The marriage occurred about one year after he fathered a daughter by the woman. There is some mystery as to the fate of the baby. Some believe the girl may have been put up for adoption while others think she may have died after contracting scarlet fever while still an infant. The couple would have two sons before divorcing in 1919 after 16 years of marriage. Einstein would marry his cousin a few months later, after having begun a relationship with her 7 years prior.

Travels

Einstein visited the United States for the first time in 1921 with New York City as his initial destination. He lectured and was celebrated in the country for three weeks. He also went to Washington D.C. during the trip and visited the White House while there. The following year, Einstein would begin touring Asia giving lectures in places such as Japan, Ceylon and Singapore. In Tokyo he would meet the Emperor and Empress of Japan at a reception in the Imperial Palace. His journey would then take him to Palestine, where he would come to appreciate his Jewish origins. Einstein emigrated to America in 1933, unhappy with the Nazi regime that had come to power in his native Germany. He became a U.S. citizen in 1940.

Accomplishments

Besides the theory of relativity, Einstein’s contribution to science is unparalleled in its depth and magnitude. He was responsible for literally hundreds of article and books as well as collaborating with other scientists on numerous occasions.

Einstein’s Annus-Mirabilas Papers of 1905 contained material relating to the theory of relativity, E = mc2, Brownian Motion and photoelectric effects. His Theory of Critical Opalescence publication explains, among other things, why the sky is blue. His Modern Quantum Theory was an upgrade to quantum theory and mechanics.

Death

Albert Einstein passed away on April 18, 1955 at the age of 76. His death came as the result of an abdominal aortic aneurysm after he refused a potentially life-saving surgery. He explained he was ready to go and would prefer to do so in an elegant manner. Unbeknownst to his family, his brain was removed prior to his cremation in hopes of discovering the source of his pronounced intelligence.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2014, 11:17:55 AM »
Alessandro Volta (1745-1827)



Born: Feb 18, 1745 in Como, Duchy of Milan (present-day Italy)

Died: Mar 5, 1827 (at age 82) in Como, Lombardy-Venetia(present-day Italy)

Nationality: Italian

Famous For: Invention of the electric cell, Discovery of methane, Volt, Voltage and Voltmeter

Alessandro Volta was an Italian physicist. He was especially active in pioneering the scientific study of electricity, and the volt is named in his honor. Volta was also the first scientist to produce a working battery, which he referred to as a “voltaic pile.” He remains highly regarded in his native land, and his image has been used on both stamps and currency.

Early Life

Volta was born in the northern town of Como, Italy on February 18, 1745. His childhood was unremarkable, and his first job of real note did not come until 1774, when he was appointed as professor of physics in his home town’s Royal School. The following year, he produced a highly successful device which created static electricity, drawing on the previous works of the Swedish scientist Johan Wilcke. Volta energetically promoted his improved device, to the extent that many people believed he had originated the very concept.

Volta then became interested in gas chemistry, discovering methane in an Italian lake in November 1776 and successfully isolating it two years later. He had been inspired to search for the gas after reading a paper written by the American polymath, Benjamin Franklin. Volta also set up experiments in which methane, while held in a sealed container, could be set alight by means of a spark of electricity.

Further Electrical Studies

Volta was a pioneer in the study of what is now known as capacitance. His work was instrumental in the scientific community’s choice of the term “volt” for the now well-known unit of electrical charge. In 1779, he was appointed to the University of Pavia’s chair in experimental physics. He was to remain in this post for more than two decades. While there, he married his wife, Teresa, and the couple had three sons together.

He became interested in the experiments that Luigi Galvani was carrying out with frogs, which showed that they could both conduct and detect electricity. Volta tried replicating the experiment with paper soaked in brine, rather than frogs’ legs, and was able to detect the flow of electricity in this way as well. From this he discovered the law by which electromotive force is determined by the difference between the potentials of two electrodes.

The First Battery

In 1800, Volta and Galvani had a quarrel regarding one of Galvani’s theories. To help show that he was in the right, Volta developed his “voltaic pile,” which was able to output an electric current on a steady basis. This was the first modern battery. While experimenting to discover the best pair of metals to use for his electrodes, Volta settled upon silver and zinc. The finished voltaic pile saw the electrodes pressed against brine-soaked cardboard, although early versions of the battery had the brine placed into goblets.

Volta’s battery, although effective, was not suitable for general use in the long term. This was partly because of its reliance on sulfuric acid, a highly dangerous and corrosive substance. Nevertheless, his achievement saw him ennobled by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801. In 1819, Volta decided to retire from active science, spending the remainder of his days living quietly on his country estate in Camnago. He died at home on March 5, 1827. A museum by Lake Como commemorates Volta’s life and works.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2014, 11:23:20 AM by MysteRy »

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2014, 11:21:59 AM »
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)



Born: Aug 30, 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand

Died: Oct 19, 1937 (at age 66) in Cambridge, England, UK

Nationality: British, New Zealand

Famous For: Father of nuclear physics, Rutherford model, Rutherford scattering, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, Discovery of proton, Rutherford (unit) and Coining the term ‘artificial disintegration’

Awards: Rumford Medal (1905), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908), Elliott Cresson Medal (1910), Matteucci Medal (1913), Copley Medal (1922) and Franklin Medal (1924)

Ernest Rutherford was a Nobel Prize winning famous physicist who was born in New Zealand in 1871. He was the son of a Scottish-born father and English-born mother. He was a bright student at school and won a scholarship to the University of New Zealand. There he graduated with Arts and Science degrees, and then won a scholarship to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in 1895.

Teaching posts

He had a distinguished spell at Cavendish where he pioneered new techniques in the detection of radio waves and made discoveries about the structure of atoms and the nature of radiation. He moved to Montreal, Canada in 1898 when he was appointed to a teaching post at McGill University. Two years later, he married his long time fiancé Mary Newton. In 1907, he returned to Britain when he was appointed Professor of Physics at Manchester University.

In 1917, he returned to the Cavendish Laboratory when he was appointed Professor of Physics. He held this position until his death in 1937. During his tenure of the physics chair at the Cavendish, the Laboratory went through an astonishingly productive period in research physics with many of his staff becoming recipients of Nobel Prizes.

Work on the Nature of Radiation

During his initial time at the Cavendish, Rutherford was nurtured by the physics professor J.J. Thomson. When he moved to Canada, he carried on his research in radiation, and discovered the difference between alpha and beta radiation. He was also the first physicist to realize that atoms could change from one element to another as a result of decay through radioactivity. Rutherford discovered that elements have a half-life. This is a time period during which a quantity of a radioactive element will diminish or decay by 50%. In recognition of this groundbreaking work, Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908. Somewhat bizarrely, the Nobel foundation awarded him the chemistry rather than the physics prize.

Atomic Structure

In 1911, while working in Manchester, Rutherford was experimenting on the effects of firing particles at various substances. His experiments showed that when firing alpha particles at a sheet of gold foil, most of the particles passed through the sheet. However, some were bounced back. This led Rutherford to propose that the bounced particles must be colliding with objects of high mass. He concluded that atoms must have a dense, positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged, less dense electrons and he proposed a new theory about the structure of an atom.

Splitting the Atom

Perhaps Rutherford is best known to the public as the first man to split an atom. This is strictly incorrect, because atoms are split during chemical reactions. In his experiments in radioactive decay, Rutherford had already recognized that atoms may split spontaneously. What Rutherford actually managed to do in 1932 was split the nucleus deliberately.

Honors

Rutherford received many awards and honors during his lifetime. In 1931, he was given the title “Baron Rutherford of Nelson.” When he died in 1937, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, where Newton is also buried, an honor awarded to only the most distinguished scientists.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2014, 11:28:18 AM »
Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)



Born: Aug 12, 1887 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Died: Jan 4, 1961 (at age 73) in Vienna, Austria

Nationality: Austrian

Famous For: Schrodinger equation, Schrodinger’s cat, Schrodinger method, Schrodinger functional, Schrodinger group, Schrodinger picture, Schrodinger-Newton equations, Schrodinger field, Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation, Schrodinger logics and Cat state

Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1933) and Max Planck Medal (1937)

Erwin Schrödinger was a famous Austrian theoretical physicist that contributed to our current understanding of physics. He was a highly educated man and the only son of parents that valued education. He dabbled in botany and painting when he was a young man.

World War I

Schrödinger was in the Italian artillery during World War I. His mentor Hasenhörl died in the war. When Schrödinger went up to receive the Nobel Prize in 1933, he said that if it was not for the war, his mentor would have been the one to receive the honor.

Zurich

After getting married and moving from one position to another, Schrödinger was recruited to be the head of the physics department at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. This was the most productive point of his career. During this time, he read a footnote in one of Albert Einstein‘s works which sparked his interest in wave mechanics.

This is when the physicist started to explore the idea of a wave when it comes to the movement of an electron in an atom. He published work about this. His idea in the publication quickly became known by the name Schrödinger’s Wave Equation. The academic world was chiefly divided between two publications, Schrödinger’s own and that of Werner Heisenberg. Unlike Heisenberg’s, Schrödinger’s theory could be visualized. However, the physicist himself put a stop to this rift when he proved that both were identical, simply expressed in different ways.

Schrodinger’s equation is part of his enduring legacy when it comes to technical contributions to the field. In his later years, he produced interesting philosophical questions related to the field of mathematics and physics.

Berlin and Recognition

Schrödinger was offered the prestigious position of Max Planck, a physicists who had already changed the way people thought about the field with his groundbreaking theories on quantum dynamics and thermal radiation.

He moved to Berlin in 1972 to take on the post. Despite making some great strides in his career, Schrödinger was hesitant to take the offer at first, uneasy about moving to a big city from the picturesque Alps. The move turned out to be a wonderful one for him.

He won the Nobel Prize in 1933 with Paul A.M Dirac. That same year, Hitler came to power in Germany and Schrödinger decided that it was time to go to England. He had an Oxford University Fellowship for a while and received an offer from Princeton University. He ultimately turned it down.

Schrödinger returned to his native country for a little while after he was offered a post at University of Graz. However, because he had left Germany, he was seen as an enemy. Schrödinger spent the last years of his working career in Dublin. He spent the last years of his life working and publishing papers.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2014, 11:31:34 AM »
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)



Born: Feb 15, 1564 in Pisa, Duchy of Florence, Italy

Died: Jan 8, 1642 (at age 77) in Arcetri, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy

Nationality: Italian (Tuscan)

Famous For: Kinematics, Dynamics, Telescopic observational astronomy and Heliocentrism

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, where the leaning tower is located, in Italy in 1564. When Galileo was 10, he moved to Florence and he enrolled in the school at the Camaldolese monastery in Vallombrosa. He returned to Pisa in 1583 to begin his university education. He studied medicine there, but was also keenly interested in other disciplines, especially physics and mathematics. Due to lack of finances, Galileo had to leave the university after two years, and he did not complete his medical degree.

Professor of Mathematics

He supported himself by taking teaching jobs, and undertook further studies in mathematics and physics. He was particularly interested in the physics of motion. He eventually established a solid reputation as a physicist and mathematician. The University of Pisa offered him the post of chair of mathematics, which he accepted in 1589.

While at the University of Pisa he studied the physics of falling objects and published a work entitled On Motion. His views were different from established science on motion and falling objects, and led to him receiving negative criticism. Because of this, the university did not renew his post. In 1592, he took a position at the University of Padua, where he taught astronomy, mechanics and geometry. He remained there for 18 years, until 1610.

Controversy

Controversy was to follow Galileo throughout his life. Much of the problems arose from his controversial views on motion and astronomy. Galileo believed Copernicus’ theory that the earth was not at the center of the universe, with all other objects orbiting around it. His astronomical studies showed that the earth and the planets revolved around the sun.

Theologians were unwilling to accept this idea, because it contradicted several statements in the Bible that declare the earth is fixed and unmovable. This view was also shared by most astronomers at the time.

Inquisition

Galileo was accused of heresy by the Church for his scientific beliefs. Galileo was told to recant his ideas about the earth orbiting the sun, and he was placed under house arrest. His offending writings were banned and publications of Galileo’s writings, past or future, were forbidden. It was not until 1638, when he went completely blind and was suffering from other ailments, that he was allowed to go to Florence for medical consultation.

Legacy

Galileo died in 1642, and it would be more than 100 years before the Catholic Church finally accepted the heliocentric nature of the solar system. His contributions to science are held in high esteem, with Einstein declaring him the “father of modern science.”

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2014, 01:49:48 PM »
Marconi (1874-1937)



Born: Apr 25, 1874 in Palazzo Marescalchi, Bologna, Italy

Died: Jul 20, 1937 (at age 63) in Rome, Italy

Nationality: Italian

Famous For: Radio

Awards: Nobel Prize for Physics (1909)

Guglielmo Marconi was born on April 25th, 1874 in Bologna, Italy. His father was an affluent Italian land owner named Giuseppe Marconi. Marconi was first taught privately by Leghorn and Florence at Bologna. He then joined the University of Bologna. As early as 1890, his interest in physics, especially on wireless network communication, became quite evident. He studied the early mathematical works of Clerk Maxwell, the experiments of Heinrich Hertz and a research on lightning and electricity by Sir Oliver Lodge.

Achievements and contributions

Guglielmo Marconi made quite remarkable advancements that impact us to this day. His inventions and discoveries helped to create the radio, television and radar of today. Marconi believed that communication among people was possible through a wireless radio signal. His determination in this field brought about his greatest successes.

In late 1894, Marconi began conducting experiments in his father’s home in Pontecchio, Italy, inspired by the knowledge he had gained by studying Heinrich’s research. He applied Hertzian waves in his experiments to transmit messages over short distances, wirelessly. He essentially improved Hertz’s invention. Marconi progressively increased the distance between the points for signal reception and transmission to relatively longer distances. It is also during this period that he performed simple experiments that involved the use of reflectors to concentrate radiated electrical energy.

As early as the summer of 1895, Marconi accomplished a signal reception and transmission distance of approximately 1.25 miles. It is interesting to note that the success of his tries were signified by waving a white handkerchief. This advanced to the need for a firing a gun as the distances increased.

In 1896, he took his apparatus to England where he was introduced to the engineer in chief of the post office, Sir. William Preece. Later in the year, Marconi was granted a patent for his successful creation of a wireless telegraph. This motivated him to form his own company in 1897.

Marconi successfully proved that wireless waves were not affected by the earth’s curvature. Obsessed with the idea of sending messages across long distances, Marconi built a giant powerful transmitter in late 1901 to transmit the first wireless signals across the Atlantic, between Newfoundland and Cornwall; a distance of over 2,100 miles.

He managed to successfully send and receive signals across the Atlantic and the news of this achievement spread across the world. The majority of other outstanding scientist, including Thomas Edison, applauded Marconi. This achievement disapproved the dominant believe that the earth’s curvature affected the transmission of wireless signals. As a result, Marconi received many honors including the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909.

Later Life and Death

Guglielmo Marconi was appointed as a Lieutenant in the Italian Army in 1914 and later as a captain and commander in the Navy. In 1919, he received an Italian military medal for his war service. During his service in the military, Marconi continued with his experiments establishing the world’s first radiotelephone link in 1932 and later a microwave beacon for ship navigation. On July 20th, 1937, Marconi died following a series of heart attacks.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2014, 01:52:23 PM »
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)



Born: Dec 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England

Died: Mar 20, 1727 (at age 84) in Kensington, Middlesex, England, Great Britain

Nationality: English (later British)

Famous For: Newtonian mechanics, Principia Newton’s method, Universal gravitation, Optics Binomial series, Infinitesimal calculus

Isaac Newton is considered one of the greatest scientists and physicists who ever lived. Newton invented a new kind of mathematics called calculus, discovered how light and color work and showed how gravity functions in the universe. Remarkably, he made these discoveries over a period of 18 months, between 1665 and 1667.

Early Life and Education

Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England on December 25th, 1642. He went to Grantham grammar school, but he was more interested in making mechanical models than he was in studying and was considered a poor student. His boyish hobbies led to a small windmill that could grind corn and wheat, a water clock and a sundial. Newton left school when he was 14 because his widowed mother needed him to help with their farm. He was no better at this than he was at being a schoolboy and he was eventually sent back to school.

Newton entered Trinity College at Cambridge University in 1661. Here again he was a mediocre student. He left school in 1665 without distinction, but returned in 1667 as a fellow. In 1669 he became professor of mathematics and gave lectures on geometry, astronomy, optics and mathematics. He later quit and went to work for the government and was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1672.

Discoveries

Newton claimed that he began to think about a theory of gravity while he was drinking tea one afternoon and saw an apple fall from a tree. This made him realize that the same force that made the apple fall is what keeps the moon in its orbit. He extrapolated from this to realize that gravity makes every pair of bodies in the universe attracted each other. He also learned that the strength of gravity depends on the amount of matter in the bodies being attracted and the distance between the bodies.

Newton also showed why the apple might fall straight to earth while the moon moved in a circle around the earth. He showed that the moon was falling constantly toward the earth and if it moved in a straight line, it would fly out of its orbit.

In 1684, Edmund Halley, the English astronomer, urged Newton to publish his findings on gravity. In 1687 Newton’s discoveries were published in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Even today this book is considered one of the great scientific books of all time.

In 1704, Newton published Optiks. In this book, he explained why bodies appear to be colored. This laid the foundation for spectrum analysis, which allows scientists to determine the temperature, chemical composition and speed of bodies like distant stars. Newton also discovered that sunlight is a mix of light of all colors while passing sunlight through a prism.

Character

Interestingly, Newton did not spend too much time studying math, physics or astronomy. He was fascinated by alchemy and theology, and was so sensitive to criticism that he had to be urged by his friends to even publish his work. Yet, Albert Einstein claimed that he could not have done what he did without Newton’s discoveries.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2014, 01:56:25 PM »
James Chadwick (1891-1974)



Born: Oct 20, 1891 in Bollington, Cheshire, England

Died: Jul 24, 1974 (at age 82) in Cambridge, England

Nationality: English

Famous For: Discovery of the neutron and Manhattan Project

Awards: Hughes Medal (1932), Nobel Prize in Physics (1935), Knight Bachelor (1945), Copley Medal (1950), Franklin Medal (1951) and Companion of Honour (1970)

James Chadwick was a British Nobel Prize-winning physicist. He received the honor in 1935 for his discovery of the neutron. Later in his career, Chadwick was most prominent as the leader of the British team that assisted with the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic weapon during World War Two. He was awarded a knighthood at the end of the war.

Early life

Chadwick was born in Manchester, England on October 20th, 1891. After a promising but unexceptional career at school, he managed to gain a place at the city’s Victoria University to study physics. This was, in fact, the result of a mistake on the part of the admissions board, since Chadwick had shown more of an interest in mathematical study. His shyness and lack of confidence as a young man prevented him from confronting the university about the error, and he took a degree in physics, graduating successfully in 1911. He then undertook postgraduate research, sometimes working alongside the renowned Ernest Rutherford.

Further Study and Discoveries

While at the university’s department of physics, Chadwick became acquainted with scientists of the caliber of Hans Geiger and Niels Bohr, among the foremost physicists of their day. He spent his time developing the planetary theory of the atom, and had achieved a Master’s degree by 1913. For his work, he was given the Exhibition Scholarship, which had been set up after the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Chadwick used the funds that this brought to go to study in Germany at the country’s first specialized research institution near Berlin. Here, Geiger was his ultimate superior, an arrangement which suited Chadwick very well. His own research brought advances such as knowledge of the energy range of beta particles, something which Wolfgang Pauli later used to help develop his own theory that the particle, now known as the neutrino, must exist.

Working With Rutherford

During World War One, Chadwick worked in Ruhleben, in a camp set up for German civilians. After the war ended, he took up a post at Cambridge University, in the world famous Cavendish Laboratory. Here, he renewed his partnership with Rutherford, and produced pioneering experiments that allowed the electrical charge of a nucleus to be determined directly. In 1922, he was appointed as director of research, working directly under Rutherford himself. The two men worked closely as they attempted to turn one element into another by means of splitting the nucleus.

By analyzing the irregularities that they found in their results, Chadwick and Rutherford came to realize that each element had its own specific atomic number and mass. They also found that the latter was always higher than the former. Rutherford’s theory was that this could be caused by neutrally-charged particles with the mass of a single proton. However, the duo was unable to show the existence of any such particle, and the hypothesis was dropped.

Later life

Eventually, Chadwick performed an experiment in which nitrogen was subjected to radiation, producing a substantial amount of energy as a result. He demonstrated that this result could only have been produced by the coming together of uncharged particles, each with about the mass of a proton. For discovering these particles, which he dubbed neutrons, he won his Nobel Prize. In the 1940’s he worked extensively on the Manhattan Project and attended the first nuclear test in New Mexico. After WWII he worked for the United Kingdom’s Atomic Energy Authority, retiring in 1962. He died in Cambridge in July, 1974.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2014, 01:58:50 PM »
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)



Born: Jun 13, 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Died: Nov 5, 1879 (at age 48) in Cambridge, England

Nationality: Scottish

Famous For: Maxwell’s theorem, Maxwell’s equations, Maxwell distribution, Maxwell’s demon,

Maxwell’s discs, Maxwell speed distribution, and others

Awards: Smith’s Prize (1854), Adams Prize (1857), Rumford Medal (1860) and Keith Prize (1869–71)

James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13th, 1831 and passed away on November 5th, 1879 in the city of Edinburg, Scotland. Interestingly he was not born with the last name Maxwell, but rather Clerk. It was after acquiring an inheritance of a country estate in Middlebie, Scotland that he added the surname of Maxwell. During his life he made numerous discoveries in the field of physics that netted him great recognition.

From a very early age Maxwell had a keen unquenchable thirst to learn what made things work. Anything that moved in any way, or that made any noise at all had him scampering to discover what made them do what they do. Once, Maxwell’s mother added a note to the letter his father was sending to his Sister in-law regarding her young son. She wrote about his natural born inquisitiveness regarding all that moved, shone or even rang. She further wrote that Maxwell displayed a great deal of interest with the workings of keys, doors and locks. Additionally, she boasted to her sister-in-law that her son also studied the hidden path of steam as it evaporated into the air as well as many other things.

Education

Maxwell’s mother would play an important part in his early education, albeit brief, for she died when Maxwell was only 8 years old. After the death of his mother in 1839 Maxwell received his continued schooling from his father and his father’s sister-in-law; both of whom had an influential role in the young boy’s education. Maxwell’s formal education was initially unsuccessful and the 16 year old boy hired to teach the young Clerk-Maxwell was not long in staying. It is believed the young teacher was cruel and verbally abusive. Upon learning of the hired tutor’s behavior toward his young son, Maxwell’s father fired the tutor.

Sometime later, after a great deal of thought, young Maxwell was sent to a well-known Academy in Edinburg where he resided with his Aunt Isabella during class terms. He first derived an interest in art from his cousin who was an artist. However, due to living a sheltered life in his father’s country, the 10 year old Maxwell did not seem to adapt and fit in at the Academy. Maxwell dealt with a great deal of teasing from other boys without complaint until, at age 13, his social isolation ended when he befriended young Peter Taint and Lewis Campbell. These two boys were close in age to him and in the future years would both become well known scholars. They would continue their friendships with the young Maxwell throughout their lives. Maxwell’s scholarly interests spanned further than what was being taught in the classroom or even what they would be tested on. In fact, he displayed a keen interest in geometry and rediscovered standard polyhedrons before receiving any formal education on the subject. Although he won the school’s first place award for scripture biography, his academic work continued to go unrecognized. Maxwell’s diligence finally reaped him well deserved recognition when he was 13 years old. At this time he won his school’s medal for mathematical achievement and further took first prize in English and Poetry. At 14 Maxwell wrote an in-depth description of a way of drawing mathematical curves with the use of string, an ellipse, ovals and like curves with more than two special points. This written work, which was titled Oval Curves, was given to the Edinburg Royalty by an Instructor of Philosophy.

At 16, Maxwell left the Edinburg Academy and entered the University, also in Edinburg. He decided to continue his studies in the same field as he studied at the Academy and received tutoring from some well-versed men in the subjects of physics, mathematics, metaphysics, logic and philosophy. When Maxwell was 18 years of age he authored two more articles; the first regarded chemical equilibriums while the second was similar to the article written when he was at the Academy. It was decided he was too young to present this document to the Royal Family and so Maxwell’s tutor made the presentation on Maxwell’s behalf.

Leaving the Homeland

Maxwell transferred to the University of Cambridge when he was 19. He was already a mathematician but held a strong desire to obtain a fellowship. He soon was invited to enter the elite Cambridge Society of Apostils.

James Maxwell was recognized as one of the top physicists of his era and is well known for his theory of electromagnetism. He posited that the elements of light, electricity and magnetism were all intertwined within the exact same phenomena. Additionally, in one of his publications Maxwell demonstrated that magnetic and electric fields travel through space while moving at the speed of light as waves. He proposed that light, in fact, moved in a wavelike pattern in much the same fashion as the electric and magnetic fields did. The joining of light and electric phenomena led to the prediction of radio waves.

Although his life was relatively short, James Maxwell’s contributions to the theory of magnetism, as well as his other achievements, leave little wonder why he is thought to be one of the top physicists of all time.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2014, 02:02:17 PM »
J.J. Thomson (1856-1940)



Born: Dec 18, 1856 in Manchester, Lancashire, UK

Died: Aug 30, 1940 (at age 83) in Cambridge, UK

Nationality: British

Famous For: Plum pudding model, Discovery of electron, Discovery of isotopes, Mass spectrometer invention, First m/e measurement, Proposed first waveguide, Thomson scattering, Thomson problem, Coining term ‘delta ray’, Coining term ‘epsilon radiation’ and the Thomson (unit)

Awards: Nobel Prize for Physics (1906)

J.J. Thomson was a brilliant British physicist who was born in Manchester, United Kingdom in December, 1856. He developed an interest in science from a very early age and showed remarkable talent as a pupil. He benefited from education in private schools, and was clever enough to be accepted into Owens College when he was only 14.

Upon leaving Owens College, he was accepted into Cambridge University in 1876, where he enrolled in Trinity College. He studied mathematics there, graduating with a first class honors BA in 1880. He had the second highest marks awarded in that year, and he was awarded the Smith’s Prize. He continued studying and received his MA degree in 1883, winning the Adam’s Prize.

Cavendish Laboratory

He was appointed Professor of Physics at the famous Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University in 1884. His skills as an inspirational teacher came to the fore, and during his time in charge, no less than seven of the staff under him won Nobel Prizes. Thomson himself would also win a Nobel Prize in 1906 for his discovery of the electron and his work on electrical conduction in gases. He lived to see his son also win a Nobel Prize in 1937.

Discovery of the Electron

Before Thomson’s discovery of the electron, physicists had long suspected that the atom was made up of smaller particles. However, the general belief was that the smallest components could not be any smaller than the hydrogen atom. In 1897, Thomson proposed that the atomic particles were up to 1,000 times smaller than the hydrogen atom.

He drew this conclusion as a result of his experiments with different types of rays. He devised an ingenious method to calculate the mass of rays under various influences and discovered their mass was significantly less than that of a hydrogen atom. Thomson’s breakthrough was to remove the air from the discharge tubes, thereby reducing the pressure. He also discovered that the mass remained constant regardless of what atom was used. He concluded from his research that an atom was composed of negatively charged particles. He called them corpuscles, but the scientific community preferred to call them electrons.

Mass Spectrometry

Thomson is credited with the invention of mass spectrometry. This is a method of deflecting rays using electrical and magnetic forces, and capturing the deflection on photographic plates. During experiments with neon gas, Thomson was able to show that there were two different deflection paths, meaning that neon was composed of two different atomic masses. In other words, there were two isotopes of neon. This was the first proof of isotopes existing in stable elements.

Honors

Apart from his Nobel Prize, Thomson received many honors. He was made a knight in 1908, and four years later was granted the Order of Merit, an award that had been introduced four years earlier to recognize distinguished service in a number of areas, including science. When he died in 1940, he was further honored by being buried in Westminster Abbey, alongside Isaac Newton and one of Thomson’s most brilliant former students, Ernest Rutherford.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2014, 02:05:22 PM »
Marie Curie (1867-1934)



Born: Nov 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland, then part of Russian Empire

Died: Jul 4, 1934 (at age 66) in Passy, Haute-Savoie, France

Nationality: French, Polish

Famous For: Radioactivity, polonium, radium

Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1903), Davy Medal (1903), Matteucci Medal (1904) and Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)

Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska to two teachers in Poland. Because her parents were involved in Polish nationalism, they were oppressed by the Russian authorities, which ran Poland at the time. Marie’s father was forced to stop giving lab instruction to his students and hence was forced to bring his lab equipment to his home. There he encouraged his children, including Marie, to use it.

Marie was a brilliant student and wished to teach, but she could not enroll in college because she was a woman. She and her sister Bronislawa founded a secret school called the Flying University, which admitted girls and, somewhat more dangerously, taught a curriculum that was decidedly pro-Polish. Marie Curie was always fiercely proud of her Polish heritage, even when she lived in France. She made sure that her daughters learned the Polish language.

Paris

Eventually, after a time of hardship, Marie came to Paris to study physics, mathematics and chemistry at the Sorbonne. Her hardships did not end when she moved to Paris, and she took tutoring jobs to make ends meet. She earned her physics degree in 1893 and a math degree in 1894.

Soon after this Marie was introduced to Pierre Curie, who taught at the School of Physics and Chemistry. They were married in 1895. Marie was reluctant at first because she had always planned to return to Poland, but Pierre claimed that he would move to Poland with her. Marie returned briefly to Poland but could not get a job at an institute of higher education because of her gender. She returned to Paris both to pursue her career and to be with Pierre.

Radioactivity

The year after her marriage, French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered natural radioactivity and the Curies became interested in the radiation emitted by natural substances. Marie and Pierre worked together to investigate these properties.

The Curies discovered that uranium ore had much more radioactivity than could be accounted for by the uranium alone. Marie and Pierre extracted small amounts of very radioactive new chemical elements from uranium ore. They named these new elements radium and polonium after Marie’s country of birth. In 1903, Marie and Pierre Curie shared the Nobel Prize for physics with Becquerel. This award made Marie Curie the first person of her gender to win the Nobel Prize. Additionally, she is so far the only woman who has won in both physics and chemistry.

After Pierre

Pierre died in 1906. At the time he was a professor at the Sorbonne and Marie was appointed as a professor in his place. She was also instrumental in founding the Radium Institute in Paris and was its first director. During World War I, she and her eldest daughter Irene, who was only 17 at the time, brought a mobile radiographic unit to the front. After the war Irene served as her mother’s assistant in the Radium Institute.

Marie Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia, a disease where the bone marrow and stem cells of the blood are destroyed. The disease was a consequence of her unprotected exposure to radiation. She was first buried at Sceaux and then her body was moved to the Pantheon in Paris.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2014, 02:07:54 PM »
Max Planck (1858-1947)



Born: Apr 23, 1858 in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein

Died: Oct 4, 1947 (at age 89) in Gottingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

Nationality: German

Famous For: Planck constant, Planck postulate and Planck’s law of black body radiation

Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1918) and Goethe Prize (1945)

Max Planck was a famous theoretical physicist who was born in 1858, in Kiel, Germany. He originated the quantum theory and it completely changed human understanding of not only atomic processes, but also subatomic processes. In 1918, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics.

Early Years and Family

Planck’s father was a professor at the University of Kiel, and later at the University of Göttingen. He was from a very traditional, intellectual family. His paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were theology professors. Planck studied at the Universities of Berlin and Munich. His teachers included Helmholtz and Kirchhoff, and he completed his doctorate of philosophy in 1879. The physicist married Marie Merck in 1887 and they had four children. After Marie died in 1909, he married Marga von Hösslin, Marie’s cousin.

Career

In Munich, he was Privatdozent from 1880 to 1885, and then at Kiel, he was an associate professor of theoretical physics, until 1889. He then succeeded Kirchhoff as professor at the Berlin University, and he remained there until he retired in 1926. Soon after, he became the president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, and he held this position until 1937.

His earliest work was on thermodynamics, a pursuit he acquired when he studied under Kirchhoff. He published several papers on entropy, thermoelectricity and also on the dilute solutions theory. He was also interested in radiation processes and believed they should be regarded as electromagnetic. After these studies he started working on the problems of energy distribution. Planck concluded that there was a relationship between the frequency of radiation and energy. In 1900, he published his conclusions about the relationship which was founded on the revolutionary idea that energy that was released by a resonator would only take on quanta, or discrete values. This was his most important work and it marked an huge milestone in physics history. The significance of this finding had far-reaching effects on physics, but it was not highly valued at first. The data for its validity progressively became overwhelming because its application took into account many inconsistencies between recognized phenomena and classical theory.

His quantum theory work was produced in the journal, Annalen der Physik. Planck’s work was published in two books which include the Thermodynamik and the Theorie der Wärmestrahlung. In 1926, Planck was elected to the Royal Society’s Foreign Membership. In 1928, he was given a medal from the Royal Society’s Copley.

Later Years and Death

He faced a very troubling time and tragic period when the Nazi government was in power. Planck believed it was his duty to stay in Germany but he was very opposed to a number of the government’s policies, in particular their policies towards the Jews. During the last weeks of World War II his home was bombed and completely destroyed.

He also suffered a personal loss when his son, Erwin, was executed for his participation in the failed assassination attempt of Hitler in July, 1944. In October of 1947, Planck died in Göttingen. He was highly respected by his colleagues for the importance of his valuable discoveries and also for his many personal qualities.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #12 on: July 30, 2014, 02:14:17 PM »
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)



Born: Sep 22, 1791 in Newington Butts, England

Died: Aug 25, 1867 (at age 75) in Hampton Court, Middlesex, England

Nationality: British

Famous For: Faraday’s law of induction, Electrochemistry, Faraday effect, Faraday cage, Faraday constant, Faraday cup, and other theories of physics

Awards: Royal Medal (1835 and 1846), Copley Medal (1832 and 1838) and Rumford Medal (1846)

Michael Faraday was a renowned chemist and physicist who is widely known for his discovery of electromagnetic induction and the law of electrolysis. His major achievement in electricity was his creation of an electric motor.

Early Life

Faraday was born in 1791 in London to a poor family. He was a curious child who questioned everything. At the age of 14, Faraday started working at a bookseller and bookbinder on Blandford Street. He worked here for seven years and read many books. This made him want to implement the suggestions and principles the books contained. He also gained an interest in science, more specifically in electricity. He was inspired by Conversations of Chemistry, a book written by Jane Marcet.

Career Life

Faraday’s earliest science position was an assistant to Humphry Davy who was also a science enthusiast. Faraday was involved in the analysis of chlorine. He also carried out rough experiments on the diffusion of gases. He also created the early form of what is the now called the Bunsen burner. He worked comprehensively in chemistry; he discovered chemicals like benzene and discovered that chlorine could be turned into a liquid.

He was appointed the first ever Fullerian Professor in Chemistry in the year 1833. He started to work on electromagnetism, which is what he is best known for, in 1821. He created devices that produced electromagnetic rotations. These developments led to the invention of the electric motor. Ten years later, Michael perceived that passing of current through a copper wire coil that was wrapped around iron caused current to be induced in the adjacent coil. In this way, he invented the very first transformer.

In the second series of his creations, he was able to discover magneto-electric induction. This is the fabrication of a stable electric current. To achieve this, he joined two wires through the sliding of contact to a specific copper disc. He rotated the disc in between a horseshoe and poles and hence achieved a continuous current. With this he invented a generator.

Faraday continued in his electrical experiments. In 1832, he demonstrated that the voltaic electricity that is produced by batteries, static electricity and electricity that is induced by a magnetic have no difference. He did major works in electrochemistry discovering the First and Second Laws of Electrolysis. This was the basis for electrolysis. He also initiated two parts of scientific lectures in the Royal Institution: The Christmas lectures and Friday evening Discourses which still run to this day.

Personal Life

Michael Faraday was a staunch Sandemanian, a non-conformist sect of Protestantism. He met his wife through this church. Her name was Sarah Bernard and they later married in 1821. They bore no children. Michael Faraday retired to his home in Hampton Court in 1858. He died here aged 75 in 1867. He was buried in the section of dissenters in the High gate cemetery in London. He had refused to be buried in Westminster Abbey although there lays a memorial plaque dedicated to him near Isaac Newton‘s tomb.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #13 on: July 30, 2014, 02:17:09 PM »
Niels Bohr (1885-1962)



Born: Oct 7, 1885 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Died: Nov 18, 1962 (at age 77) in Copenhagen, Denmark

Nationality: Danish

Famous For: Electron configuration, Copenhagen interpretation, Complementarity, Atomic theory, Aufbau principle, Bohr model, Bohr–Sommerfeld quantization, Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem, Sommerfeld–Bohr theory, BKS theory, and many others

Awards: Nobel Prize in Physics (1922), Franklin Medal (1926), Order of the Elephant (1947), and Atoms for Peace Award (1957)

Niels Henrick David Bohr was a physicist from Denmark. He made substantial contributions to the understanding of quantum mechanics and atomic structure. As a result, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the field of Physics. Bohr was a promoter and philosopher of scientific research.

Early Life

Niels was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in October, 1885. He was the second born of three children. He went to Gammelhon Latin School and Copenhagen University. He majored in Physics under Professor Christian Christiansen who was the only Physics professor there at the time. Bohr also studied mathematics and astronomy.

In 1905, Bohr conducted experiments from his father’s lab at the university since his university did not have a physics lab. To carry out his experiments Bohr had to be his own glass blower, making test tubes with elliptical cross sections.

Life and Contributions

Bohr worked on a theoretical piece regarding the absorption of alpha rays that was published in Philosophical Magazine in 1913. He introduced concepts that were borrowed from quantum theory.

Bohr had an institute which served as a center for researchers who were interested in quantum mechanics or related fields in the 1920’s and 1930’s. In this period many of the world’s best theoretical physicists spent time there. In 1922, Bohr won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on the structure of atoms and the radiation they emit. This award recognized his leading work in quantum mechanics.

In 1930, Bohr began research on the composition of the atomic nucleus, their transmutations and their disintegrations. Bohr contributed majorly to clarifications of problems that were experienced in quantum physics.

Later Life

Bohr was married to Margethe in 1912 in a civil ceremony in the town hall. They had six children, all sons. He received a lot of accolades and honors in his lifetime and was also depicted on a banknote in 1997. Bohr died at the age of 77 in 1962, leaving behind a physics legacy.

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Re: ~ Famous Physicists ~
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2014, 02:20:18 PM »
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)



Born: Jul 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia)

Died: Jan 7, 1943 (at age 86) in New York City, New York, USA

Nationality:Serbian, American

Famous For: Alternating current, Tesla coil, Tesla principle, Arc light systems, Bifilar coil, Teleforce, Electric power transmission, Electrogravitics, “High” frequency alternator, Induction motor, Lightning rods, and many others

Awards: Order of St. Sava, II Class, Government of Serbia (1892), Elliott Cresson Medal (1894), Order of Prince Danilo I (1895), and many others

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American electrical engineer and physicist. He invented the alternating current induction motor.

Early Life

Tesla was born on July 10th, 1856 in Smiljan, which was then a part of Austria-Hungary and is now part of Croatia. Tesla’s father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox religion. Tesla was given a technical education in Graz and at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague. Tesla came down with a very severe case of cholera in 1873 and his father promised that he would send Nikola to the top engineering school if he recuperated. Originally, Tesla’s father wanted him to become a priest.

Tesla’s higher education was irregular. He dropped out of the Austrian Polytechnic, and though he attended classes at the university, he never formally enrolled there. After that, Tesla worked for the Budapest Telephone Exchange as an electrician.

Tesla moved to France and then to the United States in 1884, where he began working for Thomas Edison. He quit when Edison didn’t pay him enough for hard-won improvements to the company’s generators and motors. After 1900, Tesla devoted himself to independent research at his own laboratories; one on Fifth Avenue in New York City and the other on Houston Street.

The Rotating Field Motor

Even as a student Tesla was inventive. He created a motor that did not need a commutator to function. A commutator is a device that switches the direction of a current in some generators or motors that run on electricity. Tesla invented a motor with coils that were arranged so that when alternating current energized them they cast a magnetic field that rotated at a predetermined speed. Tesla patented this rotating field motor in 1888. Fortunately, he was able to sell it at a time when the advocates of alternating current were in the market for such a motor. Tesla sold his patent to George Westinghouse.

Other Achievements

Tesla also made advances with frequency apparatuses and high voltage. He invented the Tesla coil, a system of arc lighting, a generator for high frequency currents, a system for wireless transmission and a high potential magnifying transmitter. The magnifying transmitter was a machine that could produce millions of electrical volts that manifested in long, spectacular arcs. Tesla formed his own company not long after leaving Edison with money from several investors. He held at least 278 patents.

Tesla also made advances in radio transmission, but fell into patent troubles with Marconi. He also had troubles with another backer, J. P. Morgan, who promised to pay for Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower wireless broadcasting experiment. The tower was never properly used and was demolished in 1917.

Tesla spent the last part of his life in a series of hotel rooms, and he died on January 7, 1943 in a room at the New Yorker. Though he had made a lot of money over his lifetime, he died in poverty.