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June 8 in Physics History

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birthdays & deaths

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physics Events

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June 8 in Physics History - Births – Physicists born on June 8

Bernd T. Matthias (8 Jun 1918 - 27 Oct 1980)

He was a German-American physicist who discovered nearly 1000 superconducting materials. He completed his Ph.D. in 1943 in Germany and went to the US to work at MIT. The low-temperature physics was started by him at the University of Chicago. He founded the institute University of Chicago, for the study of matter. He showed the properties of superconductivity, ferroelectricity, and ferromagnetism to be common occurrences in nature. He was able to find new examples of materials because of the relationships he could see in the periodic table.

Kenneth Geddes Wilson (8 June 1936 - 15 June 2013)

He was an American physicist who developed a general procedure to improve the theories concerning the transformations of matter called second-order phase transitions. For his discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1982. The second-order phase transition takes place at characteristic temperatures and pressures throughout the entire volume of a material. An example of such a transition is the complete loss of ferromagnetic properties of certain metals when they are heated to their Curie points. His theory helped in constructing theories that could apply to physical systems near the critical point.

Arsène d'Arsonval (8 Jun 1851 - 31 Dec 1940)

He was a French physician and physicist who was the first to research the therapeutic use of electricity, heat, and light. The first reflecting moving coil galvanometer was designed by him in 1882. He also researched muscle contraction, animal heat, and electrophysiology. This helped him in the invention of devices that are used to treat diseases with electricity. He used high-frequency currents to treat diseases of the skin and mucous membranes. He also showed that the human body also contains alternating currents.

Giovanni Domenico Cassini (8 Jun 1625 - 14 Sep 1712)

He was an Italian French astronomer who stated that Saturn’s ring was actually composed of small particles. He discovered the dark gap that divides Saturn’s rings into two parts known as Cassini’s division. He also discovered four moons of Saturn and compiled new tables on the annual motion of the Sun. His son was also an astronomer. He determined the period of rotation of Mars and observed shadows of four Galilean satellites on Jupiter.

June 8 in Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on June 8

Augusto Righi (27 Aug 1850 - 8 Jun 1920)

He was an Italian physicist who showed the properties of radio waves to be similar to that of light such as reflection, refraction, polarization, and interference. The difference between light and radio waves was that the radio waves had greater wavelength and were a part of the same electromagnetic spectrum as light. He was the first to generate microwaves and to discover magnetic hysteresis in 1880. His work opened a whole new area of the electromagnetic spectrum to research. He also worked on X-rays and wrote his first paper on wireless telegraphy in 1903.

June 8 in Physics History - Events – Physics Events of June 8

Discovery of Neptunium

The discovery of element 93 in the periodic table Neptunium was announced by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip H. in 1940. Macmillan discovered neptunium while studying nuclear fission. They both were able to prove that its chemical and nuclear properties were unique. For this discovery, they shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1951.

World Ocean Day

World ocean day was celebrated in 2009 for the first time and recognized by United Nations. It is described as the ocean project and now it is an annual day to recognize the ocean. At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, Canada proposed the concept of a world ocean day. World ocean day creates awareness of the importance of water bodies in our lives.

Nova Aquila Discovered

The brightest Nova, Nova Aquila, since Kepler’s nova was discovered in the constellations of Aquila The eagle in 1919. It was the brightest star in the sky for the months that it shown. It was half a million times brighter than the sun but was 1200 light-years away from Earth. After 7 years, the Nova Aquila slowly faded to a blue star and became smaller and denser than our Sun.

April 12 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 12 in Physics History - Births – Physicists born on April 12

Edward Walter Maunder (12 Apr 1851 - 21 Mar 1928)

He was an English astronomer who first started the British Civil Services Commission examination for the post of photographic and spectroscopic assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. He worked at the observatory for the next forty years measuring the sunspots and checking historic records. He found a lack of reports on sunspots from 1645 to 1715. Instead of questioning this, he started researching and found that there are indeed decades-long times when the sun has very few sunspots. Now we call these periods as Maunder minima.

Ferdinand von Lindemann (12 Apr 1852 - 6 Mar 1939)

He was a German mathematician who proved that π is not a solution to any algebraic equation with a rational coefficient. This explained the insoluble natural or classical Greek mathematical problem of constructing a square with the same area as a given circle using a ruler and compasses alone. He discussed Hermite’s methods that he used to prove that ‘e’ is transcendental. He extended Hermite’s results in 1882 to show that π was also transcendental.

April 12 in Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on April 12

Charles Messier (26 Jun 1730 - 12 Apr 1817)

He was a French astronomer who first compiled a systematic catalog of “M objects” and discovered 15 comets. His catalog contained nebulae, 103-star clusters, and galaxies. He concluded the alphanumeric names for objects like M1, M2, etc.

Geoffrey F. Chew (5 Jun 1924 - 12 Apr 2019)

He was an American physicist who led the group of S-matrix theorists researching the strong interaction and the bootstrap principle. He was a graduate student of Enrico Fermi. His group calculated the interactions of bound-states without assuming that there is a point-particle field theory underneath.

Igor Tamm (8 Jul 1895 - 12 Apr 1971)

He was a Soviet physicist who shared the Noble Prize with Pavel A  Cherenkov, and Ilya M. Frank for physics for his works in explaining Cherenkov radiation. He developed the theoretical interpretation of the Cherenkov effect which states that the radiation of electrons moves faster than the speed of light through matter. He also developed a method for studying the interaction of nuclear particles and contributed towards the methods for the control of thermonuclear reactions.

April 12 in Physics History - Events – Physics Events of April 12

First Man To Orbit The Earth

On this day, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961. The control of the spacecraft was locked to prevent him from taking control of the ship. It had a radio, television, and life-supporting equipment. He ejected and made a planned descent landing with his parachute but the Soviet Union denied this to save its reputation. After 7 years, he died in a plane crash.

The First Yo-Yo Toy In Space

The first yo-yo toy was taken into space in the Space Shuttle Discovery mission 51-D in 1985. With this yellow plastic Duncan Imperial yo-yo, other toys were exhibited during a time in orbit. Astronauts did the tricks with toys but the yo-yo sleeper trick couldn’t work without normal gravity. While spinning, the gyroscope showed exceptional stability. The flywheel slowed without normal gravity.

Space Shuttle Columbia Was Launched

Columbia, the American Space Shuttle was launched into space in 1981. John W. Young was the mission commander.