Physics

By jcain2084
  • 6000 BCE

    Humans learn to make fire.

  • 1600 BCE

    Babylonians

    Discover planets move in a predictable & periodic fashion.
  • 1200 BCE

    The Hindu Rigverda

    Records the first ponderings of a Big Bang.
  • 246 BCE

    Archimedes explains why things float.

  • 4 BCE

    Aristotle

    Claims the universe is geocentric - meaning a fixed Earth at the center with planets and stars moving around it.
  • 2 BCE

    Hipparchus of Nicaea

    Records the first catalog of stars.
  • 7

    Brahmagupta of India

    Suggests there is a force of gravity between the Sun and Earth.
  • 110

    Omar Khayyam

    Correctly calculates a year is 365.242198 days.
  • 110

    Omar Khayyam

    Correctly calculates a year is 365.242198 days.
  • 140

    Ibn al-Shatir

    Creates the first accurate model of our Moon's motion.
  • 300

    Eratosthenes

    Proves Earth is round and measures its circumference.
  • 500

    Aryabhata of India

    Hypothesizes that Earth turns around its own axis.
  • 1543

    Nicolaus Copernicus

    Proposes a heliocentric model of the universe - meaning the Sun, not Earth, is at the center.

  • Giordano Bruno

    Proposes our Sun is not the center of the universe, but rather one of many such solar systems.

  • Johannes Kepler

    Creates his three Laws of Planetary Motion.

  • Galileo Galilei

    Identifies the moons orbiting Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and sunspots on our Sun.

  • Huygens first identifies Saturn's rings.

  • Galileo Galilei

    Proves objects of different masses fall at the same rate.

  • William Gilbert

    First discovers Earth has a magnetic field.

  • The speed of light is first accurately measured.

  • Sir Isaac Newton

    Publishes "Principia," which includes his 3 Laws of Motion & the Law of Universal Gravitation.

  • Benjamin Franklin

    Flies a kite to collect charge in a Leyden jar showing the connection between lighting and electricity.

  • John Mitchell

    An amateur astronomer - proposes the idea of black holes.

  • Antonie-Laurent de Lavoisier

    Publishes the idea of Conservation of Mass based on ideas from Ancient Greece & Medieval Persia.

  • Thomas Young

    Shows that light is a wave in his famous double-slit experiment.

  • John Dalton

    Develops the atomic theory that matter is composed of very small, indivisible particles.

  • Michael Faraday invents the first electric motor.

  • James Clerk Maxwell

    Proves light is an electromagnetic wave and publishes his famous 4 equations.

  • Carl Benz

    Applies for a patent for the first "vehicle powered by a gas engine."

  • Nikola Tesla

    Invents the first alternating current motor.

  • W.C.Röntgen discovers the X-Ray.

  • J.J. Thomas

    Discovers electrons.

  • Max Plank

    Claims light travels in discrete packets called quanta. This begins the era of modern physics.

  • Superconductivity

    Is discovered, leading later to new medical devices like MRIs and faster computer chips.

  • Albert Einstein

    Explains how the photoelectric effect works, leading to the wave-particle duality model.

  • Albert Einstein

    Publishes the Special Theory of Relativity.

  • Hermann Minkowski

    Proposes the idea that space and time are not separate and coins the term "space-time."

  • Discovery of cosmic rays

    (Fragments of atoms that rain down on Earth from other solar systems).

  • Ernest Rutherford

    Creates the "planetary model" of the atom.

  • Marie Curie

    Wins her second Nobel Prize for discovering two elements.

  • Albert Einstein

    Combines Special Relativity and Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation in his publication "General Relativity."

  • Karl Schwarzschild

    Calculates the size of a black hole's event horizon (boundary from which no light can escape).

  • Arthur Eddington

    Confirms the Theory of Relativity by measuring the bending of starlight around the Sun in an eclipse.

  • Ernest Rutherford discovers the proton.

  • Alexander Friedmann

    Calculates that General Relativity could suggest an expanding universe.

  • James Chadwick discovers the neutron.

  • Edwin Hubble

    Definitively proves the existence of other galaxies in the universe besides the Milky Way.

  • The Pauli Exclusion Principle

    Is published, which states no two electrons can be in the same location.

  • Werner Heisenberg

    States that we cannot know both the location and speed of an electron at the same time.

  • Erwin Schrödinger

    Writes an equation to describe the probability wave that governs the motion of small particles.

  • The first scientist

    Suggests that Earth's magnetic field reverses.

  • Edwin Hubble

    Proves that all galaxies are moving away from us in an expanding universe.

  • Birth of radio astronomy

    (Using radio waves instead of only visible light to see things in space).

  • Carl Anderson

    Experimentally identifies the positron (the anti-particle of the electron).

  • The "Schrödinger's Cat" thought experiment

    Is used to explain quantum superposition, decoherence, and entanglement.

  • Einstein and Rosen Mathematically predict wormholes.

  • Richter

    Develops a magnitude scale for earthquakes.

  • Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar

    Discovers some stars must turn into black holes.

  • Nuclear fission is discovered in Berlin.

  • The transistor

    Is invented, transforming the electronic industry.

  • Maria Goeppert-Mayer

    Wins the Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining why a certain number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus result in stable atoms.

  • The first laser is created.

  • Discovery of Quasars

    (Extremely remote super-massive black holes at the center of distance galaxies emitting lots of light).

  • Gell-Mann and Zweig

    Proposed the existence of quarks

  • Penzias and Wilson

    Discover the existence of microwave background radiation (heat from the Big Bang is floating through us right now).

  • Dame Jocelyn Bell Burneli

    Co-discovers the first radio pulsars.

  • Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon.

  • Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose

    Publish that black holes are common occurrences in our universe.

  • Invention of magnetic resonance imagining (MRI).

  • The Scanning Tunneling Microscope

    Shows for the first time that matter is composed of spherical atoms.

  • Vera Rubin

    Provides evidence for the existence of dark matter.

  • String theory is first proposed.

  • The Hubble Space Telescope

    Is put into orbit from space shuttle Discovery.

  • First extrasolar planet identified.

  • Scientist

    Confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson at the LHC in Switzerland.

  • Amanda Barnard

    Wins the Feynman Prize in nanotechnology on diamond particles.