contributions of scientists in physics

IntroductIon

Science, like any other field of creative and intellectual activity, is a deeply human endeavor. A student of science should not be ignorant of the hard work and struggle behind the great discoveries. Here we give brief sketches of the lives and contributions of some of the great scientists whose work has been discussed in the chapters of this textbook. Here is an overview of where you can read in-depth about their work:

Contributions of Scientists

Chapter Number Scientists Featured

Chapter 1 Albert EinsteinS. N. BoseC. V. Raman

Chapter 5 Isaac NewtonAristotleGalileo

Chapter 6 James JouleChapter 8 Johann KeplerChapter 9 Robert Hooke

Thomas YoungChapter 10 Blaise Pascal

ArchimedesDaniel BernoulliEvangelista TorricelliGeorge StokesOsborne Reynolds

Chapter 11 Robert BoyleJacques CharlesLord Kelvin

Chapter 12 Benjamin ThompsonRudolf Clausius

Chapter 13 John DaltonGay LussacAmedeo AvogadroJames Clerk MaxwellLudwig Boltzmann

Chapter 14 Heinrich HertzChapter 15 Christiaan Huygens

Pierre Simon de LaplaceJohann Christian Doppler

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Contributions of Scientists2

ArchImedes, Greek GenIus

Birth: 287 BCDeath: 212 BC

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Archimedes was born 287 BC in the seaport city of Syracuse, Sicily.• Archimedes is generally considered to be the greatest mathematician of antiquity and one of the greatest of all time.• He used the method of exhaustion to calculate the area under the arc of a parabola with the summation of an infinite series,

and gave a remarkably accurate approximation of pi.• Archimedes proved that the sphere has two-thirds of the volume and surface area of the cylinder (including the bases of the

latter), and regarded this as the greatest of his mathematical achievements.• Archimedes’ written work that survived through the Middle Ages were an influential source of ideas for scientists during the

Renaissance.• The tomb of Archimedes carried a sculpture illustrating his favorite mathematical proof, consisting of a sphere and a cylinder

of the same height and diameter.• Archimedes died during the Siege of Syracuse when he was killed by a Roman soldier, despite orders that he should not be

harmed.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Archimedes’ Principle, Hydrostatics, Infinitesimals


Contributions of Scientists 3

ArIstotle, Greek PhIlosoPher

Birth: 384 BCDeath: 322 BC

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.• Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.• Aristotle’s views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and they even influenced the Renaissance,

although they were ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics.• His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal

logic.• Aristotle not only studied almost every subject possible at the time, but made significant contributions to most of them.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, ethics



Amedeo AvoGAdro, ItAlIAn scIentIst

Birth: 9-08-1776Death: 9-07-1856

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Amedeo Carlo Avogadro was born in Turin in 1776 to a noble family of Piedmont, Italy.• He graduated in ecclesiastical law at the early age of 20 and began to practice. Soon after, however, he dedicated himself to

physics and mathematics.• He is most noted for his contributions to molecular theory, including what is known as Avogadro’s law.• In honor of Avogadro’s contributions to molecular theory, the number of molecules in one mole was named Avogadro’s

number, NA or “Avogadro’s constant.” It is approximately 6.0221415 × 1023.• In 1820, he became Professor of Physics at the University of Turin.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Avogadro’s law, Avogadro constant



dAnIel BernoullI, dutch–swIss mAthemAtIcIAn

Birth: 29-01-1700Death: 17-03-1782

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Daniel Bernoulli was born in Groningen, in the Netherlands into a family of distinguished mathematicians. He was the son of

Johann Bernoulli (one of the developers of calculus), nephew of Jakob Bernoulli (who worked on the theory of probability), and older brother of Johann II.

• He is the earliest to attempt to formulate a kinetic theory of gases, and he applied the idea to explain Boyle’s law.• Bernoulli’s principle is of critical use in aerodynamics.• He worked with Euler on elasticity and the development of the Euler – Bernoulli beam equation.• In May, 1750 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Bernoulli’s Principle, Kinetic theory of gases, Thermodynamics



ludwIG BoltzmAnn, AustrIAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 20-02-1844Death: 5-09-1906

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Boltzmann was born in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire.• He studied physics at the University of Vienna, starting in 1863.• He received his Ph.D. in 1866 working under the supervision of Stefan; his dissertation was on the kinetic theory of gases.• Boltzmann’s most important scientific contributions were in kinetic theory, including the Maxwell – Boltzmann distribution

for molecular speeds in a gas. Maxwell – Boltzmann statistics and the Boltzmann distribution over energies remain the foundations of classical statistical mechanics.

• Boltzmann was also one of the founders of quantum mechanics due to his suggestion in 1877 that the energy levels of a physical system could be discrete.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Boltzmann equation, Maxwell – Boltzmann distribution, Stefan – Boltzmann law



sAtyendrAnAth Bose, IndIAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 1-01-1894Death: 4-02-1974

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• He is noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in developing a theory regarding the gas-like qualities of

electromagnetic radiation.• His work ranged from X-ray crystallography to unified field theories. He also published an equation of state for real gases with

Meghnad Saha.• Bose wrote a paper deriving Planck’s quantum radiation law without any reference to classical physics and sent the article

directly to Einstein in Germany. Einstein, recognizing the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose’s behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift für Physik.

• As a result of this recognition, Bose was able to leave India for the first time and spent two years in Europe, during which he worked with Louis de Broglie, Marie Curie, and Einstein.

• His work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s provided the foundation for Bose – Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose – Einstein condensate.

• In his honor, particles of integral spin are called bosons. He was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Quantum mechanics, Bose–Einstein statistics, Bose – Einstein condensate



roBert Boyle, BrItIsh PhysIcIst And chemIst

Birth: 25-01-1627Death: 31-12-1691

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Boyle was born in Lismore Castle, in County Waterford, Ireland.• Boyle is regarded today one of the founders of modern chemistry.• He is best known for Boyle’s law.• He, along with Robert Hooke, devises improvements in the construction of the air-pump. He used it to do a series of

experiments on the properties of air. An account of Boyle’s work with the air-pump was published in 1660.• He also realized that the propagation of sound was due to the properties of air.• He also carried out research on specific gravities and refractive powers, on electricity, and on hydrostatics.

CONTRIBUTION

Boyle’s law



JAcques AlexAndre césAr chArles, French scIentIst

Birth: 12-11-1746Death: 07-04-1823

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world’s first (unmanned) hydrogen balloon in August 1783.• On December 1, 1783 Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers launched the first manned hydrogen balloon flight.• Charles’s law, describing how gases tend to expand when heated, was formulated by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, but he

credited it to unpublished work by Jacques Charles.• Charles was elected to the Académie des Sciences, in 1793.

CONTRIBUTION

Charles’s Law



rudolF clAusIus, GermAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 2-01-1822Death: 24-08-1888

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Clausius graduated from the University of Berlin in 1844 where he studied mathematics and physics.• In 1847, he received his doctorate from the University of Halle on optical effects in the Earth’s atmosphere.• Clausius contributed to the field of kinetic theory after refining the simple gas-kinetic model to include translational, rotational

and vibrational motions of molecules.• He also introduced the concept of the mean free path of a particle.• Clausius deduced the Clausius – Clapeyron relation from thermodynamics. This relation, which is a way of characterizing

the phase transition between two states of matter such as solid and liquid, had originally been developed in 1834 by Émile Clapeyron.

• In 1865, Clausius gave the first mathematical version of the concept of entropy, and also gave it its name.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Thermodynamics, entropy



John dAlton, enGlIsh chemIst And PhysIcIst

Birth: 06-09-1766Death: 27-07-1844

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• John Dalton was born into a Quaker family in England.• Dalton taught mathematics and natural philosophy at New College in Manchester, until the year 1800. But he later resigned his

post and worked as a private tutor.• Dalton’s initial research included meteorology. His first publication was Meteorological Observations and Essays (1793).• In 1794, he arrived in Manchester and there he was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

He communicated his first paper in which he postulated that shortage in color perception was caused by discoloration of the liquid medium of the eyeball.

• In 1800, Dalton became a secretary of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.• He orally presented an important series of papers, entitled “Experimental Essays” on the constitution of mixed gases; on the

pressure of steam and other vapors’ at different temperatures, both in a vacuum and in air; on evaporation; and on the thermal expansion of gases.

• In 1803, Dalton gave his law of partial pressures, now known as Dalton’s law.• He calculated atomic weights of elements and assembled them in a table which consisted of six elements, namely, hydrogen,

oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Dalton’s law of multiple propor-tions, Dalton’s atomic theory, law of partial pressures



chrIstIAn AndreAs doPPler, AustrIAn mAthemAtIcIAn And PhysIcIst

Birth: 29-11-1803Death: 17-03-1853

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• After completing high school Doppler studied astronomy and mathematics in Vienna and Salzburg and later worked at the

Prague Polytechnic.• He is known for the principle he first proposed in Concerning the coloured light of double stars in 1842. This principle is now

known as the Doppler Effect.• He hypothesised that the pitch of a sound would change if the source of the sound was moving.• Doppler died at the age 49 from a pulmonary disease in Venice. His tomb is just inside the entrance of the Venetian island

cemetery of San Michele.

CONTRIBUTION

Doppler Effect



AlBert eInsteIn, GermAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 14-03-1879Death: 18-04-1959

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany. His father and his uncle founded their own company which manufactured electrical

equipment based on direct current.• His father wanted him to pursue electrical engineering, but Einstein frequently clashed with authorities and resented his

school's regimen and teaching method.• In 1896, with his father's approval, he renounced his citizenship of the German Kingdom of Württemberg to avoid military

service and again in 1932 to avoid the Holocaust as he came to the U.S.• 1905 was his annus mirabilis, the miracle year. In three elegant papers, he proposed a new and advanced picture of

electromagnetic radiation to explain photoelectric effect, developed a theory of Brownian motion and presented the special theory of relativity.

• In 1911 he was the youngest physicist present at the Solvay Conference in Brussels, the first modern meeting of physicists, and by the end of the decade he was the world's most famous scientist.

• He developed his theory of gravitation, the general theory of relativity, between 1907 and 1915.• Einstein's other accomplishments include development of Bose – Einstein statistics, studies of Brownian motion, and his long

but ultimately unfruitful work on a Unified Field Theory.• In the year 1921, he was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution the understanding of the photoelectric effect.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Special and General Relativity, photoe-lectric effect, photons and energy quanta



GAlIleo GAlIleI, ItAlIAn scIentIst And PhIlosoPher

Birth: 15-02-1564Death: 8-01-1642

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Galileo has been called the “the father of modern science.”• His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the

four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honor), and the observation and analysis of sunspots.• Galileo also invented an improved military compass and other instruments.• Galileo's support of heliocentrism led him to be tried by the Inquisition, which found him guilty of heresy, and forced him to

recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest.• Galileo was one of the first modern thinkers to clearly state that the laws of nature are mathematical.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Kinematics, Dynamics, Astronomy



JosePh louIs GAy-lussAc, French chemIst And PhysIcIst

Birth: 06-12-1778Death: 09-05-1850

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Gay-Lussac received his early education at home, and in 1794 was sent to Paris to prepare for the École Polytechnique.• Gay-Lussac's earlier researches were mostly on the properties of gases, vapor-tensions, capillarity, etc.• In 1802, he showed that different gases are dilated in the same proportion when heated from 0–100° C.• He formulated the Gay-Lussac’s Law, stating that if the mass and pressure of a gas are held constant then gas volume increases

linearly as the temperature rises.• In 1808, he co-discovered Boron and later recognized iodine as a new element.• He died in Paris in 1850.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Law of gaseous volume, discovery of Boron, Iodine



heInrIch hertz, GermAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 22-02-1857Death: 1-01-1894

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Hertz was born in Hamburg, Germany, into a prosperous and cultured family.• In 1880, Hertz obtained his PhD from the University of Berlin and remained there for post-doctoral study under Hermann von

Helmholtz.• Hertz became a full professor at the University of Karlsruhe in 1885, where he discovered electromagnetic waves.• Hertz clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by Maxwell.• He also developed the Hertz antenna receiver.• In 1892 Hertz developed a version of the cathode tube and studied the penetration of various materials by X-rays.• The SI unit of frequency, hertz (Hz), was named in his honor.

CONTRIBUTION

Electromagnetic radiation



roBert hooke, enGlIsh PhysIcIst

Birth: 28-07-1635Death: 3-03-1703

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• He investigated the phenomenon of refraction and deduced the wave theory of light.• Hooke was the first to suggest that matter expands when heated and that air is made of small particles separated by relatively

large distances.• In 1660, Hooke discovered the law of elasticity which bears his name and which describes the linear variation of tension with

extension in an elastic spring.• He built some of the earliest Gregorian telescopes, observed the rotations of Mars and Jupiter and, based on his observations

of fossils, was an early proponent of biological evolution.

CONTRIBUTION

Hooke’s Law



chrIstIAAn huyGens, dutch Astronomer And PhysIcIst

Birth: 14-04-1629Death: 8-07-1695

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Christiaan studied law and mathematics at the University of Leiden and the College of Orange in Breda.• Huygens contributed significantly to physics. His work included early telescopic studies on the nature of the rings of Saturn

and the discovery of its moon Titan, and the invention of the pendulum clock.• He also derived the conservation of momentum law and established the idea of centrifugal forces. He is most famous for

his development of the wave theory of light, which says that light consists of waves, now known as the Huygens – Fresnel principle.

• The Royal Society elected Huygens as a member in 1663. In the year 1666, Huygens moved to Paris where he held a position at the French Academy of Sciences.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Wave Theory, Huygens – Fresnel principle



JAmes Prescott Joule, enGlIsh PhysIcIst

Birth: 24-12-1818Death: 11-10-1889

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Joule studied the nature of heat and discovered its relationship to mechanical work. This led to the law of conservation of

energy and to the first law of thermodynamics.• Joule tried to explain electricity and magnetism in terms of atoms surrounded by a “calorific ether in a state of vibration.”• In 1843 he showed that the heating effect he had quantified in earlier experiments was due to generation of heat in the

conductor and not its transfer from another part of the equipment.• The SI derived unit of energy, the joule, is named after him.• He worked with Lord Kelvin to develop the absolute scale of temperature, made observations on magnetostriction, and found

the relationship between the current through a resistance and the heat dissipated, now called Joule’s law.

CONTRIBUTION

First Law of Thermodynamics



wIllIAm thomson kelvIn, BrItIsh PhysIcIst And enGIneer

Birth: 26-06-1824Death: 17-12-1907

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Lord Kelvin, as he was known, did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form.• In school, Thomson showed a keen interest in the classics along with his natural interest in the sciences.• At the University of Glasgow, he worked on the mathematical analysis of electricity and on the formulation of the first and

second laws of thermodynamics.• He predicted that the melting point of ice must fall with pressure, later confirmed by experiments.• Lord Kelvin is widely known for realizing that there was a lower limit to temperature, or absolute zero; absolute temperatures

are stated in units of kelvin in his honor.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Joule – Thomson effect, Thomson effect (thermoelectric), Absolute Zero



JohAnnes kePler, GermAn mAthemAtIcIAn And Astronomer

Birth: 27-12-1571Death: 15-11-1630

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Johannes Kepler is best known for his laws of planetary motion.• He was introduced to astronomy at an early age. At age six, he observed the Great Comet of 1577, writing that he “was taken by

[his] mother to a high place to look at it.”• Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a seminary school in Graz, Austria.• He did fundamental work in the field of optics, inventing an improved version of the refracting telescope. He was also aware of

the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary Galileo Galilei.• He was also a superb mathematician and used the data obtained by Tycho Brahe to formulate his laws of planetary motion.

CONTRIBUTION

Kepler’s laws of planetary motion



PIerre-sImon de lAPlAce, French mAthemAtIcIAn And Astronomer

Birth: 23-03-1749Death: 5-03-1827

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Laplace was born in Normandy in 1749.• Laplace’s early published work in 1771 started with differential equations and finite differences.• He formulated Laplace’s equation and developed the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical

physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming.• The Laplacian differential operator is also named after him.• He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system and was one of the first scientists to

postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse.• He died in Paris in 1827.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Laplace’s equation, Laplace transforms



JAmes clerk mAxwell, scottIsh PhysIcIst And mAthemAtIcIAn

Birth: 13-06-1831Death: 5-11-1879

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Maxwell was fascinated by geometry at an early age, rediscovering the regular polyhedron before any formal instruction.• Maxwell wrote his first scientific paper at the age of 14 in which he described a mechanical means of drawing mathematical

curves with a piece of twine, and the properties of ellipses, Cartesian ovals, and related curves with more than two foci.• His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. Maxwell demonstrated that electric

and magnetic fields travel through space in the form of waves, and at the constant speed of light and formulated his laws of electromagnetism

• Maxwell also helped develop the Maxwell – Boltzmann distribution, which is a statistical means of describing aspects of the kinetic theory of gases

• Maxwell is considered by many physicists to be the 19th-century scientist who had the greatest influence on 20th-century physics.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Electromagnetism, Color Analysis, Kinetic theory and thermodynamics



IssAc newton, enGlIsh PhysIcIst, mAthemAtIcIAn, And theoloGIAn

Birth: 25-12-1642Death: 20-03-1727

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, which dominated the scientific view of the

universe for the next three centuries.• In June 1661, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge.• In 1665, he discovered the generalized binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that later became the

calculus.• Newton showed that the motions of objects on Earth and of celestial bodies are governed by the same set of natural laws, by

demonstrating the consistency between Kepler’s laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation.• Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope and developed a theory of color after observing that a prism decomposes

white light into the many colors of the visible spectrum.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Newton’s Laws of Motion, Universal Gravitation, Optics, Binomial series, Calculus



BlAIse PAscAl, French scIentIst And PhIlosoPher

Birth: 19-06-1623Death: 19-08-1662

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Pascal’s earliest work was in the study of fluids, where he clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the

work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.• In 1642, while still a teenager, he did pioneering work on calculating machines, and after three years of effort and 50 prototypes

he invented the mechanical calculator.• He wrote a significant treatise on projective geometry at the age of sixteen, and later corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on

probability theory, strongly influencing the development of modern economics and social science.• Pascal continued to influence mathematics throughout his life. His Traité du triangle arithmétique (“Treatise on the Arithmetical

Triangle”) of 1653 described a convenient tabular presentation for binomial coefficients, now called Pascal’s triangle.• Pascal’s work in the fields of hydrodynamics and hydrostatics centered on the principles of hydraulic fluids. His inventions

include the hydraulic press (using hydraulic pressure to multiply force) and the syringe.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Pascal’s Law, Pascal’s triangle



chAndrAsekhArA venkAtA rAmAn, IndIAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 7-11-1888Death: 21-11-1970

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Raman entered Presidency College, Madras in 1902 at the age of 13. In 1904 he was placed first in his B.A. examination and won

the gold medal in physics, and in 1907 he gained his M.A. degree with the highest distinctions.• Raman took up the newly-created Palit Professorship in Physics at the University of Calcutta.• On February 28, 1928, through his experiments on the scattering of light, he discovered the Raman Effect. It provided further

proof of the quantum nature of light. Raman spectroscopy came to be based on this phenomenon.• India celebrates National Science Day on 28 February every year to commemorate this discovery.• He received the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named

after him.”• C.V. Raman was the paternal uncle of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who received the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his work

on stellar evolution.• In 1934, Raman became the assistant director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, where two years later he continued

as a Professor of physics.• Raman retired from the Indian Institute of Science in 1948 and established the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore,

Karnataka a year later. He served as its director and remained active there until his death in 1970, in Bangalore, at the age of 82.

CONTRIBUTION

Raman Effect



osBorne reynolds

Birth: 23-08-1842Death: 21-02-1912

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Osborne Reynolds attended Queens’ College, Cambridge and graduated in 1867.• In 1868 he was appointed Professor of engineering at Owens College in Manchester.• Reynolds studied the conditions in which the flow of fluid in pipes transitioned from laminar flow to turbulent flow. From these

experiments came the dimensionless Reynolds number – the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces.• Reynolds also proposed what is now known as Reynolds-averaging of turbulent flows, where quantities such as velocity are

expressed as the sum of mean and fluctuating components.• He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877 and awarded the Royal Medal in 1888.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Fluid Dynamics, Reynolds Number



GeorGe stokes, IrIsh mAthemAtIcIAn And PhysIcIst

Birth: 13-08-1819Death: 1-02-1903

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• In 1849, Stokes was appointed to the Lucasian Professorship of mathematics at Cambridge, a position he held until his death

in 1903.• His first published papers, which appeared in 1842 and 1843, were on the steady motion of incompressible fluids and some

cases of fluid motion.• These were followed by work on the friction of fluids in motion, on the equilibrium and motion of elastic solids, and on the

effects of the internal friction of fluids on the motion of pendulums.• His work on fluid motion and viscosity led to his calculating the terminal velocity for a sphere falling in a viscous medium. This

became known as Stokes’ law. He derived an expression for the frictional force (also called drag force) exerted on spherical objects with very small Reynolds numbers.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Stokes’ law, Stokes’ theorem, Stokes number, Stokes shift, Navier – Stokes equations



BenJAmIn thomPson, BrItIsh PhysIcIst And Inventor

Birth: 26-03-1753Death: 21-08-1814

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Thompson was born in Woburn, Massachusetts. His birthplace is now preserved as a museum.• He devised a method for measuring the specific heat of solids but Johan Wilcke published his parallel discovery first.• Thompson also investigated the insulating properties of various materials, including fur, wool and feathers. He realized that

the insulating properties of these materials arise because they inhibit the convection of air.• Thompson endowed the Rumford medals of the Royal Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and endowed

a professorship at Harvard University.• In 1803, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

CONTRIBUTION

Thermodynamics



evAnGelIstA torrIcellI, ItAlIAn PhysIcIst

Birth: 15-10-1608Death: 25-10-1647

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Torricelli studied science under the Benedictine Benedetto Castelli, Professor of mathematics at the Collegio della Sapienza

in Pisa.• Torricelli’s chief invention was the mercury barometer, which arose from solving a practical problem. The Torr, a unit used in

vacuum measurements, has been named after him.• Torricelli also discovered Torricelli’s Law, regarding the speed of a fluid flowing out of an opening, which was later shown to be

a particular case of Bernoulli’s principle.• Torricelli died in Florence a few days after having contracted typhoid fever, and was buried in San Lorenzo. The asteroid 7437

Torricelli was named in his honor.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Barometer, Torricelli’s Law



thomAs younG, enGlIsh PhysIcIst, PhysIcIAn And eGyPtoloGIst

Birth: 13-07-1773Death: 10-05-1829

Biography and Scientific Achievements:• Thomas Young was born in a Quaker family in England. He studied medicine in London in 1792 and later moved to Germany.• In 1799, he established himself as a physician and in 1811 Young became a physician at St. George’s Hospital.• In 1828, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.• With the double-slit experiment, he demonstrated interference which established the wave nature of light.• Besides medicine and research, Young was also one of the first who tried to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Interference of light waves, Wave theory of light, Young’s modulus, Double-slit experiment


contributions of scientists in physics

Education

contributions logic

contribution of scientists

significant contributions

contributions avogadros

raman chapter

great scientists

johann kepler chapter

james joule chapter