Chapter 12: History of key ideas

What was discovered during the following years?

400 BCE

400 BCE

Democritus suggests that there might be a limit to the divisibility of matter.

350 BCE

Aristotle suggests that the Earth is at the centre of the Universe, with the Sun, Moon, and planets on crystal spheres around.

240 BCE

Eratosthenes estimates the diameter of the Earth by comparing shadow angles in different places.

60 CE

Hero makes a small turbine driven by jets of steam.

150 CE

Ptolemy suggests that the Earth is at the centre of the Universe, and that the Sun, Moon, and planets are moving in perfect circles.

1000

Magnetic compass used in China.

1543

Copernicus suggests that the Sun is at the centre of the Universe, with the Earth and planets moving around it.

1600

Gilbert suggests that the Earth acts like a giant bar magnet.

1604

Galileo shows that all falling objects should have the same, steady acceleration.

1621

Snell states his law of refraction.

1644

Torricelli makes the first mercury barometer.

1654

Guericke demonstrates atmospheric pressure.

1662

Boyle states his law for gases.

1678

Huygens puts forward his wave theory of light.

1679

Hooke states his law for elastic materials.

1687

Newton publishes his theory of gravity and laws of motion.

1714

Fahrenheit makes the first mercury thermometer.

1752

Franklin performs a hazardous experiment with a kite to show that lightning is electricity.

1790

Herschel discovers the shape of our galaxy.

1800

Volta makes the first battery.

1803

• Dalton suggests that matter is made up of atoms.

• Young demonstrates the wave nature of light.

1821

Faraday makes a simple form of electric motor

1825

Ampère works out a law for the force between current-carrying conductors

1832

• Faraday demonstrated electromagnetic induction.

• Sturgeon makes the first moving-coil meter.

1840

First use of words 'physicist' and 'scientist.

1849

• Fizeau measures the speed of light.

• Joule establishes the link between heat and work.

1852

Kelvin states the law of conservation of energy

1864

Maxwell predicts the existence of radio waves and other electromagnetic waves.

1877

Cailletet liquefies oxygen.

1879

Swan and Edison make the first electric light bulbs.

1888

Hertz demonstrates the existence of radio waves.

1894

Marconi transmits the first radio signals

1895

Röntgen discovers X-rays.

1896

Becquerel discovered radioactivity.

1897

Thomson discovers the electron

1898

M. Curie discovered radium and polonium.

1899

Rutherford identifies alpha and beta rays.

1909

Planck proposes the quantum theory

1905

Einstein uses the quantum theory to explain the photoelectric effect, and publishes his special theory of relativity.

1911

Rutherford proposes a nuclear model of the atom.

1913

Bohr uses the quantum theory to modify Rutherford's model of the atom.

1916

Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.

1919

Rutherford splits the atom and discovers the proton.

1924

De Broglie suggests that particles can behave as waves

1925

Schrodinger wave-mechanics model of the atom

1927

Lemaitre suggests the possibility of the Big Bang.

1928

Geiger and Müller invent their radiation detector

1929

Hubble discovers that the Universe is expanding.

1932

• Chadwick discovered the neutron.

• Cockroft and Walton produce the first nuclear change using a particle accelerator.

1938

Hahn discovered nuclear fission.

1942

Fermi builds the first nuclear reactor.

1947

Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley make the first transistor.

1957

First artificial satellite, Sputnik I, put into orbit.

1958

St Clair Kilby makes the first integrated circuit

1960

Maiman builds the first laser.

1963

First geostationary communications satellite.

1969

First manned landing on the Moon.

1971

Intel Corporation makes the first microprocessor

1977

First experimental evidence of quarks.

1990

Hubble Space Telescope launched.

2012

Higgs particle discovered.