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#history of physics

5 essays

The Nobel Prize in Physics (5) 1905: Lenard, Cathode Rays, and a Small Window

In 1892, in Bonn, a small window of aluminum foil was opened in a discharge tube, and cathode rays went out into the air for the first time. Thirteen years later it brought a Nobel Prize; after that came the feuds between him and Einstein, and between him and Röntgen.

#nobel physics #history of physics #cathode rays

The Nobel Prize in Physics (4) 1904: Lord Rayleigh, Argon, and a Difference of One Part in a Thousand

In 1892, a British lord was weighing nitrogen, and the nitrogen made by two methods differed by one part in a thousand. He did not treat it as an error; instead, he magnified it.

#nobel physics #history of physics #argon

The Nobel Prize in Physics (3) 1903: Becquerel, the Curies, and a Photographic Plate in a Drawer

In March 1903, the headline of a Canadian newspaper read: radium now only 900,000 dollars a pound. This substance, expensive, glowing, and able to harm people, was discovered by three people.

#nobel physics #history of physics #radioactivity

The Nobel Prize in Physics (2) 1902: Lorentz, Zeeman, and a Widened Spectral Line

In late summer 1896, in a laboratory of Leiden University, a flame sprinkled with salt was placed between the two poles of an electromagnet, and the two yellow lines in the flame widened.

#nobel physics #history of physics #zeeman effect

The Nobel Prize in Physics (1) 1901: Röntgen, and an Invisible Light

In November 1895, in the Physical Institute of the University of Würzburg, a paper screen lit up by itself in the dark.

#nobel physics #history of physics #x rays