May 31 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!
May 31 In Physics History - Births – Physicists born on May 31
Ron Toomer (31 May 1930 - 26 Sep 2011)
He was an American engineer who was in the aerospace industry in his early career. He helped to design the heat shield for the Apollo spacecraft and also created the steel roller coasters. For this, he joined the arrow development company to design the Runaway Mine Ride using tubular steel technology. He designed the Roaring 20’s Corkscrew for Knott’s berry farm and introduced the first 360° looping rolls.
Robert Schrieffer (31 May 1931 - 27 July 2019)
He is an American physicist who developed the BCS theory and shared a Nobel prize for Physics with John Bardeen and Leon N. Cooper. It was the first successful microscopic theory of superconductivity. It explains how certain metals and alloys lose all resistance to electrical current at extremely low temperatures. The theory says that under certain conditions, at very low temperatures, the electron can form bound pairs also known as Cooper pairs. In superconductivity, this pair of electrons acts like a single particle. Schrieffer also researched on metal impurity, spin fluctuations, and chemisorption.
C. G. Abbot (31 May 1872 -17 Dec 1973)
He was an American astrophysicist who became the director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in 1906. The SAO established a network of solar radiation observatories around the world to study the sun. The observatories were installed usually at remote and assorted for chosen primarily for their high percentage of sunny days. He studied solar radiations for decades until he discovered a connection between solar variations and weather on Earth. It allowed predicting the general weather pattern up to 50 years ahead.
Martin Schwarzschild (31 May 1912 - 10 Apr 1997)
He was a German-American astronomer who used photographic instruments at stratospheric heights to obtain high-resolution observations of the turbulence in the photosphere of the sun. He worked on stellar structure and evolution which included differential solar rotation and pulsating stars. He was the son of German physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild who investigated the mathematics which eventually led to the prediction of the existence of black holes.
May 31 In Physics History - Deaths – Physicists died on May 31
James Rainwater (9 Dec 1917 - 31 May 1986)
He was an American physicist who contributed to determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei and shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1975 for his part. He also contributed to the development of the atomic bomb during WWII. He demonstrated a Theory that says not all atomic nuclei are spherical, as was generally believed. Niels Bohr and Ben R. Mottelson confirmed his theory. He also took part in the atomic energy commission and level research project and conducted valuable research on X-rays.
May 31 In Physics History - Events – Physics Events of May 31
Mark I Prototype Submarine Power Plant Test
Mark I prototype submarine power plant begins to produce power in significant amounts in 1953. Tough, it was an experimental unit made just to gain the experience of operating the mark II unit as the world’s first nuclear submarine. Mark II was launched on 21 January 1954 and both the reactors generated heat from the fission of Uranium-235. The generated heat was transferred through a heat exchanger to generate a stream that drove turbines to provide mechanical propulsion.
