#p <nat>Persian<o>physicist<n>Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham<aka>Alhazen<b>965<c>Baghdad<info>Al-Haitham was known in the West as Alhazen. He is called the father of modern optics.
// 16th century
#p <o>physicist<nat>British<n>William Gilbert<b>1544 May 24<d>1603 Dec 10<info>Gilbert proposed in 1600 that the earth was a giant lodestone with north and south magnetic poles. His theory that the earth exerted a magnetic influence throughout the solar system was a precursor to the modern conception of gravity as an attracting force between masses.
#p <o>physicist<nat>English<n>Robert Hooke<b>1635 Jul 18<d>1703 Mar 3
#p <o>physicist<nat>British<o>math<n>Isaac Newton<b>1642 Dec 25<d>1727 Mar 20/*J*/
#p <nat>French<o>math<o>physicist<n>Pierre Maupertuis<aka>Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis<b>1698 Jul 17<d>1759 Jul 27<c>Paris<mov>1746<c>Berlin<info>Maupertuis was the foremost proponent of Newtonian science in France in the 1730s, when Cartesian science was dominant there.
#p <o>physicist<nat>Swiss<n>Daniel Bernoulli<sur>D. Bernoulli<b>1700 Feb 8 (N)<d>1782
#e <t>phys exp<d>1736<n>earth's oblateness measured<au>Maupertuis<info>Maupertuis measures earth's obalteness, as predicted by Newton, by comparing the period of a pendulum in Sweden to that of one in France.
#p <o>physicist<nat>German<n>Albert Einstein<b>1879 Mar 14<d>1955 Apr 18<c>Germany<mov>1894<c>Switzerland<mov>1910<c>Prague<mov>1918<c>Germany<mov>1933<c>U.S.
#p <o>physicist<nat>German<n>Max Born<b>1882 Dec 11<d>1970 Jan 5<c>Germany<mov>1933<c>Cambridge
#p <o>physicist<nat>Dutch<n>Peter Debye<b>1884 Mar 24<d>1966 Nov 2<c>Holland<mov>1905<c>Germany<mov>1939<c>U.S.
#p <o>physicist<nat>Danish<n>Niels Bohr<b>1885 Oct 7<d>1962 Nov 18<c>Denmark<mov>1943 Jun(6)<c>Sweden<c>Great Britain<mov>1943 Aug(6)<c>U.S.<mov>1945<c>Denmark
#p <o>physicist<nat>Austrian<n>Erwin Schrödinger<b>1887 Aug 2<d>1961 Jan 4<c>Austria<mov>1938(2)<c>Ireland<mov>1956<c>Austria
#p <o>physicist<nat>British<n>William Bragg<b>1890 Mar 31<d>1971 Jul 1<c>Australia<mov>1908<c>Great Britain
#p <o>physicist<nat>French<n>Louis de Broglie<b>1892 Aug 15<d>1987
#p <o>physicist<nat>American<n>Arthur Compton<b>1892 Sep 10<d>1962 Mar 15
#p <o>physicist<nat>Austrian<n>Wolfgang Pauli<b>1900 Apr 25<d>1958 Dec 14
#e <t>phys theory<au>Young<n>interference of light waves<d>1801 Nov 12
#e <t>phys disc<n>electric current deflects compass<d>1819<au>Oersted
#e <t>phys theory<n>magnets created by electric currents<d>1820(2)<au>Ampère<info>Ampère theorised that all magnets are created by electric currents.
#e <t>pub<t>phys<au>Ampère<tit>Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomena<d>1827
#e <t>phys disc<n>magnetic induction<aka>dynamo<d>1831<c>Great Britain<au>Faraday<info>current can be induced by a moving magnet
#e <t>physics discovery<d>1835(5)<n>rotation of polarisation<c>France<info>Jean-Baptiste Biot, using two Nicol prisms, discovered that some liquids twist the plane of polarisation of a ray, and that the degree of twist depends on the type and concentration of the material in solution. In 1845 a Parisian optician, Jean-Baptiste-François Soleil, used this technique to design a saccharimeter.
#e <t>phys theory<au>Helmholtz<n>First Law of thermodynamics<d>1845(5)
#e <t>phys exp<au>Fizeau<n>speed of light measured to within 4%<d>1849
#e <t>phys theory<au>Clausius<n>Second Law of thermodynamics<d>1850
#e <t>phys exp<d>1850 Apr<n>light is slower in water<au>Foucault<info>Foucault showed that light travels slower in water than in air, refuting the corpuscular theory of light. Fizeau independently confirmed this finding 7 weeks later.
#e <t>inv<d>1851 Jan 8<n>Foucault's pendulum<au>Foucault<info>The swing plane rotated, showing earth's rotation. It was demonstrated during the spring of the same year at the Panthéon by invitation of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.
#e <t>inv<d>1852<n>gryoscope<au>Foucault<info>Foucault built the gyroscope in order to demonstrate latitude-independent evidence of earth's rotation.
#e <t>use<t>astro<d>1862<n>80-cm reflector<au>Foucault<info>Foucault built an 80-cm reflector telescope for the Marseilles observatory.
#e <t>phys exp<d>1862 Sep<n>c within 1%<au>Foucault<info>Foucault measured c within 1% of the modern value.
#e <t>phys theory<au>Clausius<n>definition of entropy<d>1865
#e <t>phys theory<n>laws of electromagnetism<d>1873<au>Maxwell
#e <t>phys exp<n>Michelson-Morley experiment<d>1887<info>This experiment refutes the existence of an ether
#e <t>phys disc<n>radio waves<d>1888<au>Hertz
#e <t>inv<d>1897<n>cloud chamber<c>Scotland<info>The cloud chamber was devised by the Scottish physicist C. Wilson while he was conducting cosmic ray research.
#e <t>phys exp<n>electron's charge-to-mass ratio<d>1897<au>J. J. Thomson
#p <nat>Russian<o>physicist<n>Andrei Sakharov<b>1921<d>1989<c>Moscow<info>Sakharov is the inventor of the Soviet hydrogen bomb.<ref>Sci Am 1999 Mar
#e <t>chem theory<d>1904<n>electrons in concentric rings<c>Cambridge<au>J. J. Thomson<info>J. J. Thomson theorised that atoms contain a specific number of electrons arranged in concentric rings.
#e <t>phys disc<d>1911<n>cosmic rays<c>U.S.<info>Austrian-American physicist Victor Hess detects radiation coming from outer space, later called cosmic rays.
#e <t>phys theory<d>1930<n>neutrino<au>Pauli<info>Pauli proposes the existence of neutrinos
#e <t>phys disc<d>1932<n>positron<c>California<info>The positron, or positive electron, was discovered by Dr. Carl D. Anderson at the California Institute of Technology.
#e <t>physics theory<d>1935<n>pion<c>Japan<info>Hideki Yukawa proposed a new particle as the mediator of the attraction between protons and neutrons. Heisenberg had earlier proposed that this force was transmitted by the exchange of an electron, even though that would violate the conservation of angular momentum.<ref>Sci Am 1998 Dec, "Physicists in Wartime Japan."
#e <t>physics discovery<d>1937<n>muon<c>California<info>While studying cosmic ray traces, Carl D. Anderson and Seth H. Neddermeyer observed charged particles which were of similar mass to the particle predicted in 1935 by Yukawa, but which had 100 times longer life than he predicted.<ref>Sci Am 1998 Dec, "Physicists in Wartime Japan."
#e <t>physics theory<d>1942<n>muon<c>Japan<info>Sakata and Takeshi Inoue believed that the particles observed by Anderson and Neddermeyer, now called muons, were decay products of the particles predicted in 1935 by Yukawa, now called pions.<ref>Sci Am 1998 Dec, "Physicists in Wartime Japan."
#e <t>phys exp<d>1942 Dec 2<c>Chicago<n>sustained nuclear chain reaction<info>A team headed by Enrico Fermi produces the first sustained nuclear chain reaction.
// Helium
#e <t>obs<d>1868<n>helium on the sun<info>by J.N. Lockyer
#e <t>phys disc<d>1895<n>helium in mineral cleveite<info>by Sir William Ramsay
#e <t>phys disc<d>1905<n>natural gas that contains 2% helium<c>Kansas
#e <t>phys disc<d>1908<n>liquefication of helium<au>Kamerlingh-Onnes<c>Netherlands
#e <t>law<d>1925 Mar 3<n>Helium Act<c>U.S.
#e <t>law<d>1937 Sep 1<n>amendment to Helium Act<c>U.S.<info>amendment allows sales to non-Federal customers
#e <t>law<d>1960 Sep 13<n>amendment to Helium Act<c>U.S.<info>amendment provides for conservation of this element
// Synthesis of heavy nuclei
#e <t>synthesis<d>1936<n>element 43, technetium<c>San Francisco<info>Technetium was first synthesised at Berkeley by Emilio G. Segrè, and then analysed by him in Palermo.
