1. The top ten most beautiful physical experiments in history
The simplest instruments and equipment have discovered the most fundamental and simple scientific concepts. These experiments "catch" the "most beautiful" soul of science in the eyes of physicists, just like historical monuments, people's long-term confusion and ambiguity are swept away in an instant, and their understanding of nature is clearer.
Robert Chris is a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy of the University of new york at Stony Brook and a historian at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He recently conducted a survey among American physicists and asked them to nominate the most beautiful scientific experiment in history. The Physics World published in September published the top 1 most beautiful experiments, most of which are well-known classics.
Surprisingly, most of the top ten experiments were done by scientists independently, with at most one or two assistants. All the experiments were carried out on the experimental table, and no large computing tools such as computers were used, but at most a ruler or a calculator.
From the selection of the top ten classic scientific experiments, we can also clearly see the most important discovery trajectory of scientists since 2, just like we have a bird's eye view of history. Physical World ranks these experiments according to the public's understanding of them, and the first one is the experiment that shows the quantum characteristics of the physical world.
However, the development of science is a process of accumulation. On September 25th, the American magazine * * * rearranged these experiments according to the time sequence and gave a simple explanation. Eratosthenes measures the circumference of the earth, a small town in ancient Egypt now called Aswan.
In this small town, the midday sun in summer hangs overhead: objects have no shadow, and the sun shines directly into deep wells. Eratostheny was the curator of the library in Alexandria in the 3rd century BC. He realized that this information could help him to estimate the circumference of the earth.
On the same day and at the same time in the next few years, he measured the shadows of objects in the same place in Alexandria. It is found that the sun's rays are slightly inclined, deviating from the vertical direction by about 7 degrees.
the rest is about geometry. Assuming that the earth is spherical, its circumference should span 36 degrees.
If the two cities form an angle of 7 degrees, it is the circumference of 7/36th, which is the distance of 5, Greek stadiums at that time. Therefore, the circumference of the earth should be 25, Greek stadiums.
Today, we know that the measurement error of Eratostheny is only within 5% through track measurement. Galileo's Free Fall Experiment At the end of 16th century, everyone thought that heavy objects fell faster than light ones, because the great Aristotle had said so.
Galileo, who worked in the department of mathematics at the University of Pisa at that time, boldly challenged the public's views. The famous experiment of the leaning tower of Pisa has become a story in science: he dropped a light and a heavy object from the leaning tower at the same time, so that everyone could see that two objects landed at the same time.
Galileo's challenge to Aristotle may cost him his job, but he showed the essence of nature, not the authority of human beings, and science made the final decision. Galileo's acceleration experiment Galileo continued to refine his views on the movement of objects.
He made a smooth straight wooden trough more than 6 meters long and 3 meters wide. Then fix the wooden trough obliquely, let the copper balls slide down from the top of the wooden trough along the inclined plane, and measure the time of each slide of the copper balls with a water clock to study the relationship between them.
Aristotle once predicted that the speed of the rolling ball is uniform and constant; The copper ball rolls twice as long and walks twice as far. Galileo proved that the rolling distance of the copper ball is proportional to the square of time: in twice the time, the copper ball rolls four times because of the constant gravitational acceleration.
(No.8) Newton's prism decomposes sunlight. Galileo died the year isaac newton was born. Newton graduated from Trinity College of Cambridge University in 1665, stayed at home for two years to avoid plague, and then got a job smoothly.
At that time, everyone thought that white light was pure light without other colors (Aristotle thought so), and colored light was a kind of light that changed somehow. In order to test this hypothesis, Newton put a prism in the sun, and through the prism, the light was decomposed into different colors on the wall, which we later called spectrum.
People know that rainbows are colorful, but they think it's because they are abnormal. Newton's conclusion is that it is these basic colors of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple that have different chromatograms that form a single white light on the surface. If you look deeply, you will find that white light is very beautiful.
(4th) Cavendish Torque Experiment Another great contribution of Newton is his law of universal gravitation, but how big is universal gravitation? At the end of 18th century, British scientist henry cavendish decided to find out this gravity. He hung a 6-foot wooden stick with small metal balls tied on both sides with metal wires, which was like a dumbbell; Then put two 35-pound shot putters in close proximity to generate enough gravity to make the dumbbell rotate and twist the wire.
then measure the tiny rotation with a self-made instrument. The measurement results are surprisingly accurate. He measured the parameters of the gravitational constant, and on this basis, Cavendish calculated the density and mass of the earth.
Cavendish calculated that the earth weighs 6.*124 kilograms, or 13 trillion pounds. Thomas Young's light interference experiment Newton is not always correct.
After many quarrels, Newton made the scientific community accept the view that light is composed of particles, not a wave. In 183, Thomas Young, a British doctor and physicist, used experiments to verify this view.
He made a small hole in the shutter, then covered it with thick paper, and poked a small hole in the paper. Let the light pass through and use a mirror to reflect the transmitted light.
then he used a piece of paper with a thickness of about 1/3 inch to divide the light into two beams in the middle. As a result, I saw the intersecting light and shadow.
this shows that two beams of light can interfere with each other like waves. This experiment played a vital role in the establishment of quantum theory a century later.
(ranked fifth) Michel Foucault pendulum experiment Last year, scientists placed a pendulum clock at the South Pole and observed its swing. They are repeating a famous experiment in Paris in 1851.
In 1851, the French scientist Michel Foucault made a demonstration in public. 2. What are the famous laboratories in the world?
1. At the beginning of the 2th century, Leiden Cryogenic Laboratory in the Netherlands, under the leadership of K. Ones, was the first to realize the liquefaction of helium, discovered superconductivity, and has been in a leading position in the field of cryogenic and superconducting.
In particular, it opened a new era of big science by developing laboratories with large-scale industrial technology. The Netherlands is a small industrial country, and the experience of Leiden Cryogenic Laboratory in the Netherlands is particularly worth learning and learning from.
2. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, which is the birthplace of electron linear accelerators, was founded in the 193s, when the economy was in depression. With its unique organizational skills, the founder Lawrence fully explored the manpower, material resources and financial resources of the United States and built the first batch of accelerators. Under his leadership, laboratory members carried out extensive scientific research, discovered a series of overweight elements, and opened up research directions such as radioisotope and heavy ion science.
It is the pioneer of a series of famous laboratories in the United States, such as Livermore, Los Alamos and Brookhaven, and it is also the model of hundreds of accelerator laboratories in the world. The second kind of laboratories belong to national institutions, some even international institutions, and are jointly undertaken by several countries.
most of them are engaged in basic metrology, high-tech projects, super-large research projects, and national defense military tasks. For example: Third, Germany's Imperial Institute of Technical Physics (PTR for short) The Imperial Institute of Technical Physics was established in 1884, which is equivalent to the German National Bureau of Metrology and is famous for its precise measurement of thermal radiation.
At the end of the 19th century, researchers in this institute devoted themselves to the study of blackbody radiation, which led Planck to discover the action quantum. It can be said that this laboratory is the birthplace of quantum theory.
iv. National Physical Laboratory (NPL for short) The National Physical Laboratory in the UK, which was founded in 19, has a long history as a research center of measurement standards in the UK. In 1981, it was divided into six departments: electrical science, materials application, mechanics and optical metrology, numerical analysis and computer science, quantum metrology, radiation science and acoustics.
As a measurement center of highly industrialized countries, it has extensive daily contact with national industries, departments and commercial institutions, and as a national representative institution, it has contact with international organizations and national measurement centers. It also provides suggestions on environmental protection, such as noise, electromagnetic radiation and air pollution.
There are about 1, scientific and technical personnel in the National Physics Laboratory of the United Kingdom, with the highest number of 1,8 in 1969. V. CERN CERN was founded in 1954 and is the largest international experimental organization.
its establishment, policy, organization, topic selection, funding and implementation of research plan are all very distinctive. W and Z particles were discovered here in 1983. The following year, two physicists in the center, Lu Biya and Vandermeyer, won the Nobel Prize in physics.
CERN was planned by 11 European countries in 1951 under the initiative of UNESCO, and now it has 13 member countries. The funds are shared by member States, and the director is appointed by the Council for a term of five years.
There are management committee, research committee and experiment committee, which are organized with excellent skills and perfect management. Staff * * * up to 6 people, mostly for recruitment system.
over the past 3 years, proton synchrocyclotron, proton synchrotron, cross storage ring (ISR), superproton synchrotron (SPS) and large electron-positron collider (LEP) have been built successively, and it has the largest bubble chamber of hydrogen (BEBL) in the world. As an international experimental institution, CERN has abundant financial, material and technical resources.
since the work involves many countries and organizations, various contradictions and frictions will inevitably occur in the construction and research. However, through consultation and cooperation, the work has been carried out smoothly, and the huge plans have been fulfilled on time, and remarkable achievements have been made one after another (see High Energy Physics, No.3, 1985, p.26). The third kind of laboratory directly belongs to the industrial enterprise department and serves the development and research of industrial technology.
Among them, Bell Laboratories and IBM Research Laboratories are the most famous. 6. Bell Laboratories Bell Laboratories, formerly known as Bell Telephone Laboratories, was established in 1925 and is one of the most influential research laboratories operated by industrial enterprises.
The main purpose is to carry out research in communication science. There are 2, researchers, 6 research departments, 14 branches and 56 laboratories, and the annual funding reaches 2.2 billion US dollars, of which 1% is used for basic research. In addition to radio electronics, it has a high level in solid-state physics (including magnetism, semiconductors and surface physics), astrophysics, quantum physics and nuclear physics.
There are a large number of high-level researchers in this research institution. For decades, they have won the Nobel Prize in physics successively: Davidson, who invented electron diffraction; shockley, Badin and Blatin, who invented transistors; Towns and Sholo, who invented lasers; Anderson, a theoretical physicist; and penzias and Wilson, a radio astronomer. The experience of Bell Laboratories is worth noting.
industrial enterprises attach importance to scientific research, especially basic research; Development and research of the trinity; Leaders have foresight and courage, and are good at grasping new topics with vitality. These are all beneficial experiences. 7. IBM Research Laboratory IBM is the abbreviation of International Bisises Machines Corporation, and has now developed into a multinational company, occupying a leading position in computer production and innovation in the world.
it was founded in 1911 with the original name of putting-tabulating-recording co. (C.T.R.), and is composed of three companies that produce statistical machinery and time recorders. These companies were founded in 1889, 189 and 1891 respectively.
By the end of 1984, IBM had more than 39, employees, and its business covered 13 countries. The IBM Research Laboratory, also called IBM Research Department, has 3,5 researchers (including many postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars), specializing in basic scientific research and exploring technologies related to products, which is characterized by combining the two.
Scientists work here, on the one hand, to promote basic science, on the other hand, to put forward new scientific ideas beneficial to practical application. The research department has four research centers: (1) Thomas J.Watson Research Center in new york, USA.
engaged in computer science, input/output technology, productive research mathematics and physics. 3. Brief introduction of the laboratory of the School of History and Culture of Tianjin Normal University
The laboratory of the School of History and Culture was established in March 26 with the approval of the school.
The laboratory consists of a simulated tour guide laboratory, a cultural relic identification and restoration laboratory, a calligraphy and painting mounting and restoration laboratory and a courseware production center, with a total area of about 5 square meters. It is mainly open to history, tourism management and museum science, and also to other related majors. The laboratory * * * has more than 35 pieces of equipment, worth about 2.5 million yuan, including 61 sets of equipment above 1, yuan.
The simulated tour guide laboratory and the network computer room are located in rooms C56 and C58 of Xingwen Building, respectively, with an area of about 36 square meters, including more than 1 computers, of which 98% are equipped with P4 or above, and the video recording and editing equipment has now reached the professional high-definition level. The main undergraduate experimental courses are computer-aided history teaching and simulated tour guide.
The cultural relics room is located in Room C59-516 of Xingwen Building, with an area of about 24 square meters. It contains more than 1,8 pieces of various cultural relics, such as stone tools, jade, pottery, bronzes, porcelain, calligraphy and painting, which are mainly used for the teaching and research of history and museology. Undergraduate experimental courses include calligraphy and painting repair and mounting, miscellaneous appreciation and evaluation of antiques, jewelry and jade identification, etc.
the courseware production center is responsible for the development, production and website maintenance of teaching courseware and online courses in the whole hospital. The college has developed more than 3 multimedia courseware and online courses, including one national prize, the city.