Acoustics

Minim friar who established the laws of the vibrating string, gave his name to the primes 2^p − 1, and ran the correspondence network at the centre of European science in the 1630s and 1640s.

acoustics, music theory, number theory

Danish physicist and chemist who discovered in 1820 that an electric current deflects a magnetic needle, founding electromagnetism.

electromagnetism, physics, chemistry

German physicist who established by experiment and theory that the current in a circuit is proportional to its driving tension and inversely proportional to its resistance.

electricity, mathematical physics, acoustics

American physicist who built the first powerful electromagnets, discovered self-induction and the oscillatory discharge, and was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

electromagnetism, electrical engineering, acoustics

Self-taught instrument maker and King's College professor who co-created the first commercial electric telegraph, invented the stereoscope and popularized the Wheatstone bridge.

experimental physics, acoustics, telegraphy

German physicist who with Gauss founded absolute electromagnetic measurement and an early telegraph, proposed the first unified force law for moving charges, and with Kohlrausch measured the ratio of units that pointed to the speed of light.

electromagnetism, geomagnetism, metrology

Physician and physicist who gave the first general statement of the conservation of energy, measured the speed of the nerve impulse, invented the ophthalmoscope, founded vortex dynamics and introduced free energy.

physics, physiology, thermodynamics

Physicist who founded the modern theory of sound and vibration, explained the blue sky by scattering, and discovered argon.

acoustics, optics, fluid dynamics

French physicist who created the Langevin equation and the theory of para- and diamagnetism, framed the twin paradox, pioneered ultrasonic sonar, and led antifascist and educational causes.

statistical physics, magnetism, relativity