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The Most Beautiful Experiments in Physics

Posted by michael on from the eye-of-the-beholder dept.

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. :)

2 of 521 comments (clear)

  1. The Cavendish Experiment by mcfiddish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Henry Cavendish did an experiment to measure the gravitational constant G. He used a torsional pendulum with two small lead weights to measure the gravitational attraction of two large lead weights nearby. I did this experiment as an undergrad and got a pretty good value for G (big error bars though). It's amazing that back in the 1700s he could measure the gravitational force due to a lead ball.

    I just did a google search on "Cavendish experiment" and found this. Evidently a geologist named John Michell deserves some credit too.

  2. The Two Slit Experiment by Nomad7674 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...has to be a front-runner here. Something as simple as a piece of paper and a light source showed that classical mechanics was not enough to explain our universe and that quantum mechanics had to be invented. No computers needed, no complex aparratus, and no genius needed to explain it (today).

    Course, I am a physics freak. The biology, computer science, chemistry, etc. freaks may have their own opinions! ;-)