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Top Ten Physics Experiments Of All Times

Posted by Hemos on from the beating-back-the-unknown dept.

MarkedMan writes "The New York Times is running an article about the top ten physics experiments of all time. You may disagree with the order, but it is hard to imagine pulling any one of these from the top ten. And most of them could be done by a patient amateur, at least one with access to cannonballs." The Times article wraps up the work by Robert P. Crease mentioned a few weeks ago.

15 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. NYT article without registering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    For all the lamers who don't want to register, Google News is your friend.

  2. I VOTE FOR THIS ONE.... by Thatto · · Score: 5, Funny

    What could you do with 50Lbs. of Silly Putty?
    Check out the link:

    http://www.sunbelt-software.com/stu/putty/

    This one simple act covers physics(gravity Acceleration, fluid dynamics and whatnot) and is so simple but so fun.

    Too bad its sponsored by a windows software publishing house.
    FUN!

  3. What about the Michaelson-Morley experiment? by BitterOak · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I find it astonishing that the Michaelson-Morley experiment, which was the basis for Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity didn't make the top ten list.

    Special relativity changed the direction of physics in the 20th century. All modern physics incorporates it at a fundamental level. In some sense it is one of the most influential physics experiments of all time.

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    If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    1. Re:What about the Michaelson-Morley experiment? by pmc · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Not really - MM experiment completely destroyed the worldview at the time. Depending on you criteria this has to be one of the top ten.

      Other ones missing are

      JJ Thompsons backscattering of alpha particles from gold foil - changed to model of the atom from the plum pudding model to the nuclear model

      Penzia and Wilson discovery of the microwave background - changed the model of the universe.

      Discovery of superconductivity.

      Any of Faraday's electromagnetism experiments - lead directly to Maxwell's field theory of electromagnetism, and hence to moden field based physics.

      There are load more - the NYT list is poor.

    2. Re:What about the Michaelson-Morley experiment? by RedWizzard · · Score: 5, Informative
      JJ Thompsons backscattering of alpha particles from gold foil - changed to model of the atom from the plum pudding model to the nuclear model
      You're confused. The plum pudding atom was JJ Thompson's - it was Ernest Rutherford who did the scattering experiment and proposed the nuclear model of the atom. And that experiment is on the list at number 9.
  4. 11th greatest experiment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny


    Conducted in 7th grade; proved that farts are flammable.

  5. Thought experiments vs experiments by Jim.McGinness · · Score: 5, Informative

    What I find interesting is that two of the experiments were not experiments at all in the traditional sense. They were thought experiments: Galileo is generally thought not to have dropped cannonballs from the Leaning Tower of Pisa -- instead, his writings describe a thought experiment involving two unequal weights tied together with a rope. And Young's double slit experiment was also a thought experiment -- the verification came many years later.

  6. Summary of the article by guttentag · · Score: 5, Funny
    • In the late 1500's, everyone knew that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones. After all, Aristotle had said so. That an ancient Greek scholar still held such sway was a sign of how far science had declined during the dark ages. Galileo Galilei, who held a chair in mathematics at the University of Pisa, was impudent enough to question the common knowledge.

    • Aristotle would have predicted that the velocity of a rolling ball was constant: double its time in transit and you would double the distance it traversed. Galileo was able to show that the distance is actually proportional to the square of the time: Double it and the ball would go four times as far.

    • The common wisdom held that white light is the purest form (Aristotle again)...
    Article summary: Three out of ten great scientists rose to prominence by proving Aristotle was an idiot. Dissing Aristotle is a sure fire way to impress your friends in scientific circles.
    1. Re:Summary of the article by Sivar · · Score: 5, Informative

      Article summary: Three out of ten great scientists rose to prominence by proving Aristotle was an idiot.

      Proving that *Aristotle* was an idiot? Aristotle is widely known as a person who was probably among the most intelligent humans ever to have lived.

      Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. His studies on animals laid the foundation for the biological sciences and weren't superceded until two THOUSAND years after his death.

      Aristotle made significant contributions to logic (He and Plato founded the basic principals of logic, such as some of the rules of inference), physics, astronomy, meteorology, zoology, metaphysics, theology, psychology, political science, economics, ethics, rhetoric, and poetics However, still more astounding is the fact that the majority of these subjects did not exist as such before him, so that he would have been the first to conceive of and establish them, as systematic disciplines.

      His writings, some of which you should recognize as some of the most influential documents ever written, include:
      On logic
      Categories
      On Interpretation
      Prior Analytics
      Posterior Analytics
      Topics
      Sophistical Refutations

      On physics
      Physics
      On The Heavens
      On Generation and Corruption

      On psychology and natural history
      On The Soul
      On The Parts Of Animals
      On The Motion Of Animals
      On The History Of Animals
      On The Gait Of Animals
      On The Generation Of Animals

      On ethics
      Nicomachean Ethics
      Eudemian Ethics
      Magna Moralia
      Politics
      Rhetoric
      Poetics

      General investigation of the things
      Metaphysics

      Other works
      Meteorology
      On Dreams
      On Longevity and Shortness Of Life
      On Memory and Reminiscence
      On Prophesying by Dreams
      On Sense and The Sensible
      On Sleep and Sleeplessness
      On Youth and Old Age, On Life And Death, On Breathing

      This person contributed more and to more areas than any other who has ever lived. That some of his sciences were found to be incorrect does not change this, particularly when you consider that he laid the foundation of the principal ideas of what we call physics more than two thousand years before his physics were superceded. Calling this man a moron is like calling Linux Torvalds a newbie programmer, or Windows 95 a reliable server operating system. In fact, I cannot think of anything more wrong than to use "Aristotle" and "idiot" in the same sentence without a "not". Name one person who has done even close to as much for human knowledge and understanding.

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      Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
    2. Re:Summary of the article by Alsee · · Score: 5, Funny

      Your 3.5 page essay on the greatness of Aristotle earned you a +5 interesting/insightfull/informative, but...

      Article summary: Three out of ten great scientists rose to prominence by proving Aristotle was an idiot +5 funny

      is pure gold :)

      (How do I know it's pure gold? Well, I was taking a bath and some of the water spilled over the side...)

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    3. Re:Summary of the article by shren · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Science lived in Aristotle's shadow for a long time. This was both good and bad. Good, becuase Aristotle was quite clever and there was a lot of useful stuff in his shadow. Bad, because his work was taken as gospel, complete and correct in all areas.

      I think it's very easy to forget about how different the minds of people are between now and then. Concepts we take for granted - uniform space, causality, the scientific method, non-contact forces - wern't even a part of the intellectual landscape. I think if anyone ever actually invented a time machine, going back far enough would encounter humans almost alien in thought. We all share premises from growing up in this era. They had different premises, perhaps different enough to hinder communication even if a common language was found.

      Every time you read something obvious in one of Aristotle's works, remember - it's only obvious now because he wrote it then. Imagine, perhaps, a world where it's not obvious and think about how we got from there to here.

      --
      Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
  7. New Info Explains Galileo's Brilliance by guttentag · · Score: 5, Funny
    In the late 1500's, everyone knew that heavy objects fall faster than lighter ones. After all, Aristotle had said so. That an ancient Greek scholar still held such sway was a sign of how far science had declined during the dark ages. Galileo Galilei, who held a chair in mathematics at the University of Pisa, was impudent enough to question the common knowledge.
    The man's job was holding a chair? This explains everything. No wonder he understood gravity so well. His arms must have tired and he kept dropping the thing.

    People who have the most menial, boring jobs have the most time to intimately study commonly-ignored things like gravity.

  8. Groan. At least TWO ERRORS in the article. by Alsee · · Score: 5, Informative

    gravity, which holds that the strength of attraction between two objects increases with the square of their masses and decreases with the square of the distance between them.

    No, attraction between two objects increases with the PRODUCT of their masses.

    Millikan:
    each droplet picked up a slight charge of static electricity as it traveled through the air

    No, he used radiation to alter the charge on the drops. I believe he used an alpha particle source.

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  9. Re:Reductionist history by KarlH · · Score: 5, Informative
    Albert Einstein didn't get the Nobel Prize for his work on relativity. By 1921 that was still in dispute, not established science. He got it for discovering the law of the photoelectric effect -- and to some lesser extent for his model describing the kinetics of Brownian motion.

    www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1921/index.html
    www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1921/press.html

  10. Re:My favourite physics experiment... by surprise_audit · · Score: 5, Funny
    The one thing that truly travels faster than light is monarchy. When a reigning monarch dies, the heir to the throne instantaneously becomes the next king or queen.

    According to Terry Pratchett (can't remember which book offhand), experiments to transmit messages by careful torturing of a small king have so far been unsuccessful, but the researchers are still hopeful...