Experimental physics

English experimental philosopher, the Royal Society's first Curator of Experiments, author of Micrographia and of the law of elasticity, and an architect of London's rebuilding after the Great Fire.

experimental physics, elasticity, microscopy

English natural philosopher who isolated hydrogen, showed the composition of water, tested the inverse-square law of electricity, and weighed the Earth with a torsion balance.

experimental physics, electrostatics, gravitation

Lombard physicist who invented the electrophorus, the condenser and the voltaic pile, the first source of continuous electric current.

electricity, electrochemistry, pneumatic chemistry

Geometer who introduced line coordinates, the Plücker formulas and line geometry, and physicist who first observed the magnetic deflection of the cathode glow and studied gas spectra.

analytic geometry, algebraic curves, line geometry

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

Manchester brewer and experimenter who found the law of electrical heating and measured the mechanical equivalent of heat, the experimental basis of energy conservation.

thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, kinetic theory of gases

Experimental physicist who made the first terrestrial measurement of the speed of light, showed that flowing water partly drags light, explained Doppler shifts of spectral lines, and founded interferometric metrology and stellar interferometry.

optics, experimental physics, astronomy

Experimental physicist who demonstrated the Earth's rotation with his pendulum and gyroscope, showed that light is slower in water than in air, measured the speed of light in the laboratory, discovered eddy-current heating, and created the silvered-glass reflecting telescope and the knife-edge test.

experimental physics, optics, mechanics

Experimental physicist who first photographed shock waves, explained Mach bands and the sense of rotation, and whose critique of absolute space shaped Einstein's general relativity.

experimental physics, gas dynamics, sensory physiology

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

acoustics, optics, fluid dynamics

German physicist who discovered rectification at crystal contacts, built the cathode-ray tube, introduced the coupled tuned transmitter and early phased arrays, and shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Marconi.

experimental physics, wireless telegraphy, solid-state physics

Experimental physicist who measured the speed of light with unprecedented accuracy, invented the interferometer used in the Michelson–Morley experiment, and became the first American Nobel laureate in science.

optics, experimental physics, metrology

Experimental physicist who produced and detected electromagnetic waves, confirming Maxwell's theory, and founded the theory of elastic contact.

electromagnetism, contact mechanics, mechanics

Physicist who found the displacement law and the high-frequency distribution law of black-body radiation, and identified the positive particles of canal rays with crossed electric and magnetic fields.

experimental physics, thermal radiation, thermodynamics

American experimental physicist who measured the elementary charge with the oil-drop method, confirmed Einstein's photoelectric equation, named cosmic rays and led Caltech from 1921 to 1945.

experimental physics, atomic physics, cosmic rays

French physicist whose Brownian-motion and sedimentation experiments established the reality of molecules, Nobel laureate in 1926, and founder of the CNRS and the Palais de la découverte.

physical chemistry, experimental physics, brownian motion