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March 14 in Physics History

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birthdays & deaths

Explore all birthdays & deaths of physicists occurred on this day with their short biography!

physics Events

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March 14 in Physics History - Births – Physicists born on March 14

Albert Einstein (14 Mar 1879 - 18 Apr 1955)

He was a German-American physicist who developed the social and general theories of relativity and won the Noble prize for physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1921. Einstein advanced a series of theories that proposed entirely new ways of thinking about space, time, and gravitation. His theory of relativity and gravitation revolutionized scientific and philosophic inquiry. Einstein died in April 1955 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He has requested that his body be cremated but in a bizarre incident, pathologist Thomas Harvey removed his brain during his autopsy and kept it to study and unlock the secret of his genius. After Einstein’s son’s approval, he cut his brains into pieces, and a handful of studies have been conducted on it since the 1980s.

Eugene Andrew Cernan (14 Mar 1934 - 16 Jan 2017)

He was an American astronaut who traveled into space three times. He was the second American to make a tethered extravehicular activity when he left his spacecraft for more than 2 hours during Gemini 9 mission. He piloted the lunar module to within 10 miles of the lunar surface as a member of the Apollo 10 flight. He was the last of 13 humans to walk on the moon.

Robert Serber (14 Mar 1909 - 1 Jun 1997)

He was an American physicist who gave lectures on the design and construction of atomic bombs as the construction of atomic bombs as background for the Manhattan Project. He coined the code-names of the three bomb designs: “Little Boy”(uranium gun), “Thin Man”(plutonium gun), “Fat Man”(plutonium implosion). He was part of the first American team visiting to assess their damage at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He returned to academia after WW II and became a physics professor at Columbia University.

Frank Borman (Born On 14 Mar 1928)

He was an American astronaut who was a member of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 as it took the first manned flight around the moon. He went to Air Force and then to NASA.

Pieter van Musschenbroek (14 Mar 1692 - 19 Sep 1761)

He was a Dutch mathematician and physicist who invented the first device for storing static electricity. His family manufactured scientific instruments such as microscopes, telescopes, and air pumps. In 1746, he placed water in a metal container suspended on silk cords and led a brass wire through a cork into water. He built up a charge into the water. The Leyden name is linked to the discovery having being made at the University of Leiden.

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (14 Mar 1835 - 4 Jul 1910)

He was an Italian astronomer who is remembered for his observations of Mars over seven oppositions and named the “seas” and “continents”. He made studies, both theoretical and observational, of comets, determining from the shape of their tails that there was a repulsive force from the Sun. He also explained the regular meteor showers as the result of the dissolution of comets and proved it for the Perseids. He discovered the asteroid Hesperia in 1861.

Vilhelm Bjerknes (14 Mar 1862 - 9 Apr 1951)

He was a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist and one of the founders of the modern science of weather forecasting. He assisted his father in carrying out experiments when he was young to verify the theoretical predictions that resulted from his father’s hydrodynamic research. His work in meteorology and on electric waves was important in the early development of wireless telegraphy.

March 14 in Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on March 14

Stephen Hawking (8 Jan 1942 - 14 Mar 2018)

He was an English theoretical physicist who was one of the greatest leaders in his field. His areas of research were theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. He was a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He was confined to a wheelchair and was unable to speak due to Lou Gehrig’s disease. Despite his challenges, he utilized his intelligence, abilities, and knowledge to make remarkable contributions to the field of cosmology. He was the author of the book A Brief History of Time.

Howard Hathaway Aiken (9 Mar 1900 - 14 Mar 1973)

He was an American mathematician who invented the Harvard Mark I, a forerunner of the modern electronic digital computer. His research had led to a system of differential equations that could only be solved using numerical techniques. His idea was to use an adaptation of Hollerith’s punched-card machine. When built, it was controlled by a sequence of instructions on punched paper tapes and used punched cards to enter data and give output from the machine.

William Fowler (9 Aug 1911 - 14 Mar 1995)

He was an American astrophysicist who shared the Noble Prize in physics for his theoretical and experimental studies of the nuclear reactions of importance in the formation of the chemical elements in the universe. He spent his life calculating the rates of nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest, as in the interior of stars. he made theoretical calculations relating to supernovae neutrinos, the formation of light elements, and nucleocosmochronology.

Johann Heinrich von Mädler (29 May 1794 - 14 Mar 1874)

He was a German astronomer who published the most complete map of the moon. It was the first lunar map to be divided into quadrants, and it remained unsurpassed until Julius Schmidt’s map of 1878. In 1830, He also published the first systematic chart of the surface features of the planet Mars.

March 14 in Physics History - Events – Physics Events on March 14

Pi Day

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. What is π, anyway? Divide any circle’s circumference by its diameter; the answer (whether for a pie plate or a planet) is always approximately 3.14, a number we represent with the Greek letter π. Keep calculating π’s digits with more and more accuracy – as mathematicians have been doing for 4,000 years—and you’ll discover they go on literally forever, with no pattern.

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.