April 16 in Physics History
Physics history will help you to develop a better understanding of the physics world!
birthdays & deaths
Explore all birthdays & deaths of physicists occurred on this day with their short biography!
physics Events
Know all important discoveries made by physicists & events happened on this day with complete information!
April 16 in Physics History - Births – Physicists born on April 16
John Hadley (16 Apr 1728 - 6 Dec 1799)
He was a British inventor and mathematician who improve the reflecting telescope and produced the first of its kind having complete accuracy and power. His reflecting telescope consisted of a 6-inch mirror and he used to polish telescope lenses. He was also a member of the Royal Society and was the vice president from 21st Feb 1728. He is known for the reflecting octant that is used at the sea for measuring the altitude of celestial bodies above the horizon.
Joseph Black (16 Apr 1682 - 14 Feb 1744)
He was a Scottish chemist, physician, and physicist who lectured in chemistry anatomy at the University of Glasgow. His experiments included fixed air and he also discovered bio carbonates and identified latent heat. He found that carbon dioxide was released by fermentation, respiration, and burning of charcoal so he gave a theory that carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. With the latent heat of substances, he also determined the specific heat of materials.
April 16 in Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on April 16
Jacques Cassini (18 Feb 1677 - 16 Apr 1756)
He was a French astronomer who was the son of the astronomer, mathematician, and engineer Giovanni Cassini. He is known for the direct measurement of the proper motions of stars. He also studied the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and the structure of Saturn’s ring and his two major treaties on the subject appeared in 1740. With his father, he made numerous observations, and later he took over his father’s duties as the head of the Paris observatory.
Henry Augustus Rowland (27 Nov 1848 - 16 Apr 1901)
He was an American physicist who revolutionized spectrum analysis which is the resolution of a beam of light into components have different wavelength. He researched the magnetic permeability of steel, nickel, and iron which even won the praise of Maxwell. He also invented the concave diffraction grating which replaced the use of prisms and plane gratings. In early 1880 he calculated the mechanical equivalent of heat and proved that the specific heat of water depends on temperature. Also, in 1870 he determined the absolute value of the Ohm.
George William Hill (3 Mar 1838 - 16 Apr 1914)
He was a US-based mathematical astronomer who made original contributions to the three-body problem and was also known to be the greatest master of celestial mechanics of his time. He computed the orbit of the moon and when he took over the nautical almanac in 1877 he begins a complete revolution of computing all the solar system motions and was assigned the difficult problem of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. He also gave the indefinite determinants which letter found application in many fields of mathematics and physics. He completed the calculations of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn after enormous labor of 10 years and after that, he continued his research in celestial mechanics.
April 16 in Physics History - Events – Physics Events of April 16
The Second Closest Approach To The Sun
The Helios-B deep space probe made the closest approach (Now it is the second closest approach after Parker Solar Probe) to the sun in 1976 within 0.3 AU. It carried electric and magnetic wave experiments, a fluxgate magnetometer, charged particle experiments, and a micrometeoroid experiment. These tools were there to compare the material found in the space between the sun and the earth’s orbit 0.3 AU away from the Sun. NASA developed two such deep space probes along with Germany.
