Chapter 12: History of key ideas
Key developments in Physics
- 400 BCE. Democritus suggests that there might be a limit to the divisibility of matter. (Atomos is the Greek word for indivisible.)
- 350 BCE. Aristotle suggests that the Earth is at the centre of the Universe, with the Sun, Moon, and planets on crystal spheres around it.
- 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.
- 1827 Ohm states his law for metal 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 Schrödinger 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.
