The Most Beautiful Experiments in Physics

TheMatt writes "In this month's 'Physics World', Robert P. Crease asks the question: what is the most beautiful experiment in physics? Some criteria quoted are that it must change what people thought, must not be too complicated or expensive, and, most importantly, be within the reach of students (which leaves out Stern-Gerlach or Michelson-Morley). He also has a page at BNL reprinting the article, with a place for suggestions from the community on their opinion." I'll nominate a simple one: Foucault's Pendulum. :)

Comments

Here's an odd one...

[FortKnox]

What about Gallileo's hypothesis about the Feather and the Hammer that was proven on the (IIRC) Apollo 14 mission?

Eddington, 1919, proving general relativity

[Cally]

My vote (without reading other comments) goes to Arthur Eddington's validation of Einstein's relativity by demonstrating that the sun's gravity bent the light from nearby stars. But how do you see stars when they're right next to the sun? Good lateral thinking, very ingenious...

WRONG! glass is NOT a liquid

[Sebastopol]

it is an amorphous solid, refer to this urban legend...

An Urban Legend

The legend usually appears in any of the following forms:

Antique windowpanes are thicker at the bottom, because glass has flowed to the bottom over time.

Glass has no crystalline structure, hence it is NOT a solid.

Glass is a supercooled liquid.

Glass is a liquid that flows very slowly.

Glass is a liquid.
The prolonged survival of this legend, chiefly among English speakers (and particularly among North Americans) is puzzling -- especially when one considers that glass and glassy materials are readily available, and one can easily verify if one can pour a gallon of glass, or drain a pint of obsidian.