1500 AD to 1599 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 1500 AD years until 1599 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.


1510 Helicopter design – Leonardo da Vinci
1519-1522 Magellan sails round the world
1543 Copernican system published
1544-1603 Gilbert
1546-1601 Tycho
1560 Eclipse of the Sun
1560 First scientific society founded in Naples – Della Porta
1564-1642 Galileo
1571-1630 Kepler
1572 Supernova in Cassiopeia observed by Tycho
1576 Observatory constructed – Tycho
1576 Stars scattered through space – Thomas Digges
1580-1637 Vernier
1581 Galileo studies medicine in Pisa
1581 Pendulum theory – Galileo (?1582)
1590 g – same for lead and wax spheres – Stevin de Groot
1591 Pisa - weights dropped from the tower by Galileo (?)
1591-1626 Snell, Willebrod
1596 Mira – variable star – observed by David Fabricius
1596-1650 Descartes
1597 Air thermometer – Galileo
1598-1647 Cavalieri – lens makers formula

 

0 AD to 1500 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from 0 AD years until 1500 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.


50 Cleomedes studied refraction
70-147 Ptolemy
77 Pliny – watching gladiators through an emerald
662 Arabic numerals in west – Severus Sebockt
800 School of Science founded in Baghdad
930 –1003 Gerbert - pope
965 -1038 Al Hazan
990 Pope Sylvester III labels beads in the abacus
1350 Spectacles
1450 Printing – invention of printing
1452-1519 Leonardo da Vinci
1472 Halley's comet observed – Johannes Regiomontanus
1473-1543 Copernicus
1476 Printing press - Caxton

History of Physics

 

History of Physics and Astronomy

Big Bang to 0 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from the Big Bang until 0 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1.4x10¹⁰ years ago Big Bang
300000 years later Universe becomes dark
A billion years later Star – first one appears
4.5x10⁹ years ago Origin of the Earth
500 000 years ago Human race appears
3400 BC Ten - use of the symbol for 10 in Egypt
2700 BC Babylonian astronomers named the constellations
2000 BC Water clocks in Mesopotamia
1400 BC Iron Smelting
900 BC Pulleys
624-547 BC Thales of Miletus
572- 492 BC Pythagoras
500-428 BC Anaxagoras
460-370 BC Democritus – idea of atoms
444 BC Empedocles- optical tentacles theory of vision
400-355 BC Eudoxus – spheres theory
427-347 BC Plato
400 BC Tortoise paradox
384-322 BC Aristotle
332 BC Alexandria founded
310 -230 BC Aristarchus – heliocentric theory
300 BC Euclid – laws of reflection of light
275-194 BC Eratosthenes – size of the Earth- 24000 miles
287-212 BC Archimedes
200 BC Hero of Alexandria
46 BC Calendar introduced by Julius Caesar

Famous Female Scientists

  Famous Female Scientists

 These scientists are Caroline Herschel, Mary Anning, Ada Lovelace, Maria Mitchell, Mary Kingsley, Annie Cannon, Marie Curie, Louise Boyd, Gerty Cori, Irene Joliet-Curie, Helen Taussig, Margaret Mead, Barbara McClintock, Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, Ruth Wakefield, Grace Murray Hoppe, Rachel Carson, Chien-Shiung Wu, Mary Leakey, Gertrude Elion, Rosalind Franklin, Rosalyn Yalow, Stephanie Kwolek, Jewel Plummer Cobb, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, Ada Yonath, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Ellen Ochoa.

• Caroline Herschel: – She was a German astronomer. She was the first woman to discover a comet and also to receive honorary membership into the Royal Society. In 1783, Caroline Herschel discovered an open cluster which is known as NGC 2360.
• Mary Anning: – She was an amateur paleontologist and a fossil collector. Anning is sometimes referred as ‘the greatest fossilist the world ever knew’.
• Ada Lovelace: – Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician. She is considered the first computer programmer. She is best known for her work on Charles Babbage’s proposed general-purpose computer.
• Maria Mitchell: – She was the first professional female astronomer of America. She discovered a comet in 1847.
• Mary Kingsley: – She was an English explorer and scientific writer. Kingsley traveled throughout the West Africa.
• Annie Cannon: – Annie Cannon was an American astronomer. She studied bright southern hemisphere stars.
• Marie Curie: – Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Noble prize and the first scientist to win this in two different fields physics and chemistry. She discovered Polonium and Radium.
• Louise Boyd: – Louise Boyd was an American explorer. She made her first trip to arctic in 1926. In 1955, she became the first woman to charter a private plane and fly across the North Pole.
• Gerty Cori: – Gerty Cori was a biochemist. She was the first American woman to win a Noble prize in science. She has done some research work on the metabolic mechanism.
• Irene Joliet-Curie: – She was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. Both her parents were scientists. She served as a nurse radiographer during the World War I.
• Helen Taussig: – She was an American cardiologist. She is also credited with the development of the first successful treatment of ‘blue baby’ syndrome.
• Margaret Mead: – Margaret Mead was an anthropologist. In 1979, she was awarded the highest civilian order of the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• Barbara McClintock: – She was an American scientist. She is best known for her discovery of mobile genetic elements. In 1983, she won the Noble Prize in Physiology.

Earth Facts

 Earth Facts

Our planet earth is the largest of all the terrestrial planets and the only planet in our solar system which is not named after Greek or Roman gods. The word earth came from an Anglo-Saxon word Erda that means ground or soil. It was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. It is the third planet from the sun. Once it was believed to be the centre of the universe. It is the only planet which is known to support life.

Quick Facts: –

• This planet is an oblate spheroid that is made up of Iron, Oxygen and Silicon.
• Around 70% of our planet‘s surface is covered with water.
• Our planet has a strong magnetic field that is created by its molten iron core.
• It is the only planet with plate tectonics and liquid water on the surface. These tectonic plates are responsible for everything like earthquake, mountain formation etc.
• Our planet’s atmosphere contains 21% of oxygen.
• It is the only planet to support life.
• Talc is the softest known mineral of the earth that is used for many purposes.
• The planet has one large satellite, moon.
• Some changes occur in the gravitational force across the earth’s surface.
• The unexplored ocean of our planet contains more than 20 million tons of gold.
• Our atmosphere is made up of five layers.
• The earth takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate on its axis.
• It is the densest planet of the entire solar system.
• Our planet has seasons because it tilts slightly while orbiting around the sun.
• The distance between earth and the Sun is around 93 million miles.
• Mount Chimborazo is the furthest away from the center of our planet.
• The earth seen from moon also goes through phases.
• Antarctica is the coldest and driest continent on the planet.

Halley’s Comet

  Halley’s Comet

A comet can be defined as a small solar system body, orbiting Sun. They are made up of dust, ice and small rocky particles. Halley’s Comet is the most famous as it is a periodic comet. It appears in about every 76 years. In 1986, it was the last time when this comet was here and now it will appear in 2061.

Quick Facts: –

• This comet is named after an English astronomer Edmund Halley.
• He concluded that comets orbits the Sun and discovered this comet’s period of orbit.
• Halley examined the reports that said a comet approached the earth in 1531, 1607, 1682.
• Halley’s Comet is known as a short term comet because the time taken in orbiting the Sun is less than 200 years.
• A specific portion of this comet has a glowing appearance that is known as a coma. This coma is visible only when the comet is close enough to Sun.
• Length of this comet is around 9 miles.
• The Oort cloud is the origin of Halley’s Comet.
• This comet is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.
• It is the first periodic comet to be identified.
• The first recorded appearance of this comet was in 240 B. C. as found in the Chinese Records of the Grand Historian.
• The direction of this comet’s orbit is opposite to the direction of planetary orbits.
• American writer Mark Twain was born in 1835, they same year in which the Halley’s Comet appeared and he made a successful prediction that he will die with a Halley’s Comet. Same thing happened as he died in 1910.

Atom

Atom

 An atom is the smallest possible piece of a chemical element. All matter is made of groups of atoms bonded, or connected, together into molecules.

The word atom comes from the Greek word “atomos,” which means “indivisible.”  Scientists used to think that atoms could not be broken up into smaller parts. But today, we know that they can. Atoms are made of smaller parts — protons, electrons and neutrons. Protons are particles with a tiny positive electrical charge. Neutrons have no electrical charge. And electrons have a tiny negative charge.

In an atom, the protons and neutrons hang out in the center, or nucleus. The electrons travel in a cloud around the nucleus. The cloud is split into layers called orbitals, where electrons are likely to be. Atoms of different elements have different numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons. The number of protons an atom has (its atomic number) determines which element it is.

The combination of protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom give each element its unique properties. For example, the four electrons in carbon’s outermost layer give this atom the ability to bond with up to four other atoms. This makes carbon an essential building block for every living thing on Earth. The 226 neutrons in radium-226 make this atom glow in the dark.

Because they are made of smaller particles, atoms can be broken up into pieces. Once that happens, though, the pieces are no longer a part of one chemical element. Break up a carbon atom, and you no longer have carbon. So a carbon atom is still the smallest possible piece of carbon.

Power words

atom: The basic unit of a chemical element. Atoms are made up of a dense nucleus that contains positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons. The nucleus is orbited by a cloud of negatively charged electrons.

atomic: Having to do with atoms, the smallest possible unit that makes up a chemical element.

atomic number: The number of protons in an atomic nucleus, which determines the type of atom and how it behaves.

bond: (in chemistry) A semi-permanent attachment between atoms — or groups of atoms — in a molecule. It’s formed by an attractive force between the participating atoms. Once bonded, the atoms will work as a unit. To separate the component atoms, energy must be supplied to the molecule as heat or some other type of radiation.

carbon: The chemical element having the atomic number 6. It is the physical basis of all life on Earth. Carbon exists freely as graphite and diamond. It is an important part of coal, limestone and petroleum, and is capable of self-bonding, chemically, to form an enormous number of chemically, biologically and commercially important molecules. (in climate studies) The term carbon sometimes will be used almost interchangeably with carbon dioxide to connote the potential impacts that some action, product, policy or process may have on long-term atmospheric warming.

chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H2O. Chemical also can be an adjective to describe properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

electron: A negatively charged particle, usually found orbiting the outer regions of an atom; also, the carrier of electricity within solids.

element: A building block of some larger structure. (in chemistry) Each of more than one hundred substances for which the smallest unit of each is a single atom. Examples include hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, lithium and uranium.

matter: Something that occupies space and has mass. Anything on Earth with matter will have a property described as "weight."

molecule: An electrically neutral group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in the air is made of two oxygen atoms (O2), but water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O).

neutron: A subatomic particle carrying no electric charge that is one of the basic pieces of matter. Neutrons belong to the family of particles known as hadrons.

nucleus: Plural is nuclei. (in biology) A dense structure present in many cells. Typically a single rounded structure encased within a membrane, the nucleus contains the genetic information. (in astronomy) The rocky body of a comet, sometimes carrying a jacket of ice or frozen gases. (in physics) The central core of an atom, containing most of its mass.

orbital: Adjective for something relating to orbits. (in chemistry and subatomic physics) The pattern(s) of electrons (and their density) that form(s) within an atom or molecule.

particle: A minute amount of something.

proton: A subatomic particle that is one of the basic building blocks of the atoms that make up matter. Protons belong to the family of particles known as hadrons.