March 10 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!
March 10 in Physics History - Births – Physicists born on March 10
John Playfair (10 Mar 1748 - 20 Jul 1819)
He was a Scottish physicist, mathematician and geologist who is remembered for his principle that two intersecting straight lines cannot both be parallel to a third straight line. He was the first to recognize that a river cuts its own valley, and he cited British examples of the fluvial origins of valleys, to challenge the catastrophic theory that was still widely accepted. He illustrated the Huttonian theory of the Earth and gave strong support to James Hutton’s principle of uniformitarianism. He was also the first to link the relocation of loose rocks to the movement of glaciers.
Val Logsdon Fitch (10 Mar 1923 - 5 Feb 2015)
He was an American particle physicist who shared the Noble Prize with James Watson Cronin for physics in 1980 for an experiment that disproved the long-held theory that particle interaction should be indifferent to the direction of time. Fitch had been the first to observe radiation from muonic atoms while working with Leo James Rainwater. He went on to study kaons and in 1964 began his collaboration with several physicists which led to the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons.
March 10 in Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on March 10
Frits Zernike (16 Jul 1888 - 10 Mar 1966)
He was a Dutch physicist who was awarded the Noble prize for his invention of the phase-contrast microscope that permits the study of internal cell structure without the need to stain. It also enables one to detect slight flaws in mirrors, and other instruments indispensable for research. It can render colorless and transparent objects visible in the microscope.
Lester Germer (10 Oct 1896 - 10 Mar 1971)
He was an American physicist who, with his colleague Clinton Joseph Davisson, conducted an experiment that demonstrated the wave properties of the electron. They showed that a beam of electrons scattered by a crystal produces a diffraction pattern characteristic of a wave. This confirmed the Hypothesis of Louis-Victor de Broglie that the electron should show wave as well as particle nature. He also studied erosion of metals, thermionics, and contact physics.
Francis Robbins Upton (1852 - 10 Mar 1921)
He was an American physicist and mathematician who was the assistant of Thomas Edison. He contributed to the development of the American electric industry. He was recruited by investors who felt it couldn’t hurt to supplement Edison’s wizardry with some advanced scientific training. He also became a partner and general manager of the Edison Lamp Company. His articles for Scientific American and Scribner’s Monthly introduced many of Edison’s inventions to the public.
March 10 in Physics History - Events – Physics Events on March 10
First Telephone Call
Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call in 1876, on this day. His assistant, Thomas Watson heard a bell voice over the experimental device which said, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” This was his first successful experiment with the telephone. On the same day, he wrote to his father about his “great success” and speculated that “the day is coming when telegraph wires will be laid on to houses just like water and gas and friends converse with each other without leaving home.” Later, Bell succeeded in making a phone call over outdoor lines.
Rings of Uranus Discovered
When Uranus occulted a star in 1977, it was noticed that there were dips in the brightness of the star before and after it passed behind the body of Uranus. This data suggested that Uranus was surrounded by at least five rings. Two additional ones were found by Voyager 2 and four more rings were suggested by subsequent occultation measurements from the Earth. Most of the rings are not quite circular, and most are not exactly in the plane of the equator.
