Loading
Breakthroughs in Physical Science Timeline
- Aristotle Stagiritis, son of Nicomachus
- 384 BC - 322 BC
- In physical science, Aristotle studied anatomy, astronomy, economics, embryology, geography,
geology, meteorology, physics and zoology.
-
Pythagoras of Samos
- 570 BC - 495 BC
-
Pythagorean theorem in Algegra, Pythagorean tree construction in mathematics and the first scientific knowledge of fractals; two and three-dimensional geometry (Euclidian Geometry) shapes and solids.
-
Nikolaus Copernicus
- 1473 – 1543
-
His heliocentric model, with the Sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed
motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting Earth at rest in the center of the
universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history
of science that is often referred to as the Copernican Revolution.
-
Galilei Galileo
- 1564 - 1642
-
an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the
Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent
astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of
modern observational astronomy," the "father of modern physics," the "father of science," and "the
Father of Modern Science."Stephen Hawking says, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person,
was responsible for the birth of modern science.
-
Johannes Kepler
- 1571 - 1630
-
a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific
revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later
astronomers based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican
Astronomy. They also provided one of the foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal
gravitation.
-
Isaac Newton
- 1643 - 1727
-
an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who
is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the
most influential men in history. His 1687 publication of the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia
Mathematica is considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science, laying
the groundwork for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation
and the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the
next three centuries. 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, thus removing the last doubts about heliocentrism
and advancing the scientific revolution.
-
Michael Faraday
- 1791 - 1867
-
an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of the time) who
contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. Faraday studied the magnetic
field around a conductor carrying a DC electric current, and established the basis for the
electromagnetic field concept in physics. He discovered electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and
laws of electrolysis. He established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an
underlying relationship between the two phenomena.
-
James Clerk Maxwell
- 1831 - 1879
-
a Scottish theoretical physicist and mathematician. His most significant achievement was the
development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated
observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a consistent
theory. His set of equations—Maxwell's equations—demonstrated that electricity, magnetism and even
light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon: the electromagnetic field. From that moment on,
all other classical laws or equations of these disciplines became simplified cases of Maxwell's
equations. Maxwell's work in electromagnetism has been called the "second great unification in
physics", after the first one carried out by Isaac Newton.
-
Georg Cantor
- 1845 - 1918
-
a German mathematician, born in Russia. He is best known as the creator of set theory, which has
become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of one-to-one
correspondence between sets, defined infinite and well-ordered sets, and proved that the real
numbers are "more numerous" than the natural numbers. In fact, Cantor's theorem implies the
existence of an "infinity of infinities". He defined the cardinal and ordinal numbers and their
arithmetic. Cantor's work is of great philosophical interest in chaos and fractals branches of mathematics.
-
Hendrick Lorentz
- 1853 - 1928
-
a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery
and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect. He also derived the transformation equations
subsequently used by Albert Einstein to describe space and time.
-
Max Planck
- 1858 - 1947
-
a German physicist. He is considered to be the founder of the quantum theory, and thus one of the
most important physicists of the twentieth century.
- Albert Einstein
- 1879 - 1955
-
a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories
of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion,
explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of light by gravity and
gravitational lensing, the first fluctuation dissipation theorem which explained the Brownian
movement of molecules, the photon theory and wave-particle duality, the quantum theory of atomic
motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, the semiclassical version of the Schrödinger
equation, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose-Einstein condensation.
Einstein is best known for his theories of special relativity and general relativity. He received
the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics services to Theoretical Physics, especially his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
-
Max Born
- 1882 - 1970
-
a German born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum
mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics.
-
David Bohm
- 1917 – 1992
-
a U.S.-born British quantum physicist who made significant contributions in the fields of
theoretical physics, philosophy and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project.
-
Richard Feynman
- 1918 – 1988
-
an American physicist known for the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of
quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well
as work in particle physics (he proposed the parton model). For his contributions to the development
of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.
-
Benoit Mandelbrot
- 1924 - current
-
a French American mathematician, best known as the father of fractal geometry. He is Sterling
Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Emeritus at Yale University; IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas
J. Watson Research Center; and Battelle Fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
- Stephen Hawking
- 1942 - current
-
a British theoretical physicist. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and
quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. Hawking's key scientific works to
date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding singularities in the framework
of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which
is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation).
- Alan Guth
- 1947 - current
-
a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Guth has researched elementary particle theory (and how
particle theory is applicable to the early universe). Currently serving as Victor Weisskopf
Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is the originator of the
inflationary universe theory.