Timeline for ``Modern Physics''
450-300 BC -
Greek Atomists:
Leucippus, Democritos, Epicurus . . .
335 BC -
Aristotle: continuous
elements
(earth, air, fire, water)
300 BC -
Zeno of Cition (founder of Stoics) popularizes
Aristotelian view.
60 BC -
Titus Lucretius Carus of Rome epitomizes
"Atomist" philosophy.
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1879 - Josef Stefan [expt]
power emitted as blackbody radiation P = A
T 4
1884 - Ludwig Boltzmann [theor]
explains Stefan's empirical law
1885 -
Johann Jakob Balmer [expt]
empirical description of
line spectra
emitted by H atoms
1890 -
Johannes Robert Rydberg [expt]
1893 - Wilhelm Wien [expt]
blackbody spectrum displacement law:
peak wavelength varies as T-1
1895 -
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen [expt]
discovers X-rays
1897 -
Joseph John Thomson [expt]
measures q/m
of the electron
1900 - Max Planck [theor]
derives correct blackbody radiation spectrum
1902 -
Philipp E.A. von Lenard [expt]
measures photoelectric effect
1905 -
Albert Einstein [theor]
explains photoelectric effect
1905 -
Albert Einstein [theor]
publishes Special Theory of Relativity
(STR)
1905 -
Albert Einstein [theor]
explains Brownian motion
(gives mass of atoms!)
1905 -
Ernest Rutherford [expt]
performs first alpha-scattering
experiments at McGill Univ. (Canada)
1907 -
Robert A. Milliken [expt]
measures electron charge
(now know both qe
and me).
1912 -
William (H. & L.) Bragg [expt]
shows that X-rays
scatter off crystal lattices
1913 -
Hans Geiger & Ernest Marsden [expt]
confirm Rutherford scattering
results at Univ. of Manchester (U.K.)
1913 -
Niels Henrik David Bohr [theor]
pictures H atom
with quantized angular momentum
1916 -
Albert Einstein [theor]
publishes General Theory of Relativity
(GTR)
1916 -
Robert Andrews Milliken [expt]
confirms photoelectric effect
in detail
1922 -
Arthur Holly Compton [expt]
scatters X-rays
off electrons
1924 -
Louis Victor de Broglie [theor]
hypothesizes ``matter waves''
with
= h/p
1925 -
Wolfgang Pauli [theor]
formulates his exclusion principle
1925 -
Max Born & Werner Heisenberg [theor]
introduce quantum mechanics
1926 -
Erwin Schroedinger [theor]
develops a nonrelativistic
wave equation
for quantum mechanics
1927 -
Werner Heisenberg [theor]
formulates his uncertainty principle
1928 -
Paul A.M. Dirac [theor]
develops a
relativistic wave equation
for electrons and predicts
antimatter
.
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