NeutrinoCenter.org | Global: Old Physics Experiments

Old Physics Experiments | impacts:

Year, Experiment / Observation, Scientist(s), Field

• c. 240 BCE | Measurement of Earth’s circumference | Eratosthenes | Astronomy / Geophysics

• c. 150 CE | Ptolemaic astronomical observations | Claudius Ptolemy  | Astronomy

• 1021 | Camera obscura / optics experiments | Ibn al-Haytham | Optics

• 1589–1592 | Falling bodies experiments | Galileo Galilei | Mechanics

• 1609 | Telescope observations of Jupiter’s moons | Galileo Galilei | Astronomy

• 1638 | Inclined plane experiments | Galileo Galilei | Mechanics

• 1643 | Barometer experiment | Evangelista Torricelli | Fluid physics

• 1654 | Magdeburg hemispheres experiment | Otto von Guericke | Vacuum / Pressure

• 1666 | Prism experiment on white light | Isaac Newton | Optics

• 1676 | Measurement of speed of light from Io eclipses | Ole Rømer | Optics / Astronomy

• 1687 | Newtonian gravitational theory from astronomical data | Isaac Newton | Mechanics

• 1738 | Bernoulli fluid-flow studies | Daniel Bernoulli | Fluid dynamics

• 1745–1746 | Leyden jar experiments | Musschenbroek, Kleist | Electricity

• 1752 | Kite experiment | Benjamin Franklin | Electricity

• 1774 | Torsion balance studies of electric force | Charles-Augustin Coulomb |Electricity

• 1781 | Discovery of Uranus | William Herschel | Astronomy

• 1783 | Ice calorimeter experiment | Lavoisier & Laplace | Thermodynamics

• 1798 | Cavendish experiment: measurement of gravitational constant  Henry Cavendish | Gravitation

• 1801 | Double-slit experiment | Thomas Young | Optics / Wave physics

• 1819 | Magnetic effect of electric current | Hans Christian Ørsted | Electromagnetism

• 1820 | Force between current-carrying wires | André-Marie Ampère | Electromagnetism

• 1827 | Brownian motion observation | Robert Brown | Statistical physics

• 1831 | Electromagnetic induction | Michael Faraday | Electromagnetism 

• 1843 | Joule’s mechanical equivalent of heat | James Prescott Joule | Thermodynamics

• 1849 | Terrestrial measurement of speed of light | Armand Fizeau | Optics

• 1851 | Foucault pendulum | Léon Foucault | Mechanics / Earth rotation

• 1859 | Blackbody radiation studies begin | Kirchhoff, Bunsen | Thermal radiation

• 1865 | Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory tested indirectly | James Clerk Maxwell | Electromagnetism

• 1879 | Stefan–Boltzmann radiation law experiments | Josef Stefan | Thermodynamics

• 1881 | Michelson interferometer experiment | Albert Michelson | Optics

• 1887 | Michelson–Morley experiment | Michelson & Morley | Relativity / Ether test

• 1887 | Photoelectric effect observed | Heinrich Hertz | Quantum physics

• 1888 | Electromagnetic waves produced and detected | Heinrich Hertz | Electromagnetism

• 1895 | X-ray discovery | Wilhelm Röntgen | Atomic physics

• 1896 | Radioactivity discovered | Henri Becquerel | Nuclear physics

• 1897 | Electron discovery using cathode rays | J. J. Thomson | Particle physics

• 1899 | Blackbody spectrum measurements | Lummer & Pringsheim | Quantum physics

• 1900 | Planck radiation law | Max Planck | Quantum physics

• 1905 | Brownian motion theory confirmed later experimentally | Einstein / Perrin | Statistical physics

• 1909 | Oil-drop experiment | Robert Millikan | Electron charge

• 1909 | Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment | Geiger, Marsden, Rutherford | Nuclear physics

• 1911 | Rutherford nuclear model | Ernest Rutherford | Atomic physics

• 1913 | Franck–Hertz experiment | Franck & Hertz | Quantum physics

• 1919 | Solar eclipse test of general relativity | Arthur Eddington | Relativity

• 1922 | Stern–Gerlach experiment | Stern & Gerlach | Quantum mechanics

• 1923 | Compton scattering experiment | Arthur Compton | Quantum physics

• 1927 | Davisson–Germer electron diffraction | Davisson & Germer | Quantum mechanics

• 1932 | Neutron discovery | James Chadwick | Nuclear physics

• 1932 | Positron discovery in cosmic rays | Carl Anderson | Particle physics

• 1938 | Nuclear fission experiments | Hahn, Strassmann, Meitner, Frisch | Nuclear physics

• 1947 | Pion discovery in cosmic rays | Lattes, Occhialini, Powell | Particle physics

• 1956 | Neutrino detection | Cowan & Reines | Particle physics

• 1964 | Cosmic microwave background discovery | Penzias & Wilson | Cosmology

• 1968 | Deep inelastic scattering at SLAC | Friedman, Kendall, Taylor | Particle physics

• 1974 | J/ψ particle discovery | Ting, Richter teams |Particle physics

• 1983 | W and Z boson discovery | UA1 & UA2, CERN | Particle physics

• 1987 | Supernova 1987A neutrino detection | Kamiokande-II, IMB, Baksan | Neutrino physics

• 1995 | Top quark discovery | CDF & DØ, Fermilab | Particle physics

• 1998 | Neutrino oscillation discovery | Super-Kamiokande | Neutrino physics

• 2012 | Higgs boson discovery | ATLAS & CMS, CERN | Particle physics

• 2015 | Gravitational wave detection | LIGO | Relativity / Astrophysics