Archimedes  of Syracuse (It) ( Greek)    287 BC to 212 BC     

Many a student have got punished by stating the Archimedes’ principle as “ One day when Archimedes was taking a bath he fouind the solution to a problem and  ran round the city naked shouting EUREKA, EUREKA”

Fig.1  Showing the importance of lever.

This could have been true as , according to some, his last words had been  “  Don’t disturb my circles “  just before a Roman soldier severed his head.

 

Fig. Archimedes in Bronze. Berlin.

Some  of his achievements are}-

1.  Elucidation of upthrust (upward force)  when a body is immersed in a fluid.  ( Upthrust is equal to the weight of fluid displaced)
2. The principle of levers which were designed to lift and topple ships that came to attack the city .
3. The Archemedes screw which lifted water
4. The death ray which used reflected sun light to burn the hostile ships.

 Becquerel Antoine Henry (Fr)   15/12/1852 to 25/8/1908          Nobel Prize in physics 1903

He was researching fluorescence,, glowing in darkness,  In Uranium salts after exposure to light. On his desk he had a photographic plate for X ray photography.

It was well wrapped with black paper to prevent exposure.  He left a uranium sample on this parcel probably as a paper weight. Following day he found the plate to be fogged as if light had entered.  He correctly concluded that some kind of rays had come from the sample. This phenomenon was later named as RADIOACTIVITYY by his most distinguished pupil Marie Curie.

 

•  Bohr Niels  Henrik David 7/10/ 1885 - 8/11/ 1962 (Danish) Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 “

                  

"In 1913, he passed on to a study of the structure of atoms on the basis of Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus. By introducing conceptions borrowed from the Quantum Theory as established by Planck, ….., he succeeded in working out and presenting a picture of atomic structure that, with later improvements (mainly as a result of Heisenberg's ideas in 1925), still fitly serves as an elucidation of the physical and chemical properties of the elements.”  Courtsey Nobel Prize.org. 

 

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• Copernicus Nicolaus  (Ger) 19/2/1473 – 24 /5/ 1543    
  
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  “Sometime between 1507 and 1515, he first circulated the principles of his heliocentric or Sun-centered astronomy. Copernicus' observations of the heavens were made with the naked eye. He died more than fifty years before Galileo became the first person to study the skies with a telescope. From his observations, Copernicus concluded that every planet, including Earth, revolved around the Sun”.  Courtesy The StarChild site
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•   Curie  Marie (Polish)  7/11/1967 to 4/7/34         
  Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) Chemistry 1911                        
  “Marie may be considered as the most successful, human being that ever trudged the globe”  Simple Science
  Along with her husband she  discovered that :-
  
  1. Radiation does not depend on external factors such as temperature or the intensity of light,
  2. Radiation was always proportional to the Uranium atoms present in the sample independent of their chemical combinations. (Thus they realized that radiation is not a chemical property but a property of certain atoms)
  She coined the terms ‘Radio activity’ and “Radio active materials’.
  Day and night she worked tirelessly in search of a mysterious substance and discovered the highly  radio active elements Polonium. Named in honour of her country and Radium.
  She not only found the therapeutic value of Radium but volunteered to use it on patients. “During the war she laboriously worked to equip mobile X ray units. She trained young women to use X rays to detect metal splinters in the flesh. Irene 19 was also among them. All of them got paid by massive doses of radiation.”

                 

             Marie Curie and her daughter Irène at the Hoogstade Hospital in Belgium, 1915. Radiographic equipment is installed.      Courtesey  Nobel Prize.org.      

 

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• Darwin Charles Robert  (Br)    (1809-1882).      

‘

Father of Evolution”.    In his book ‘Origin of Species’ he supplied the necessary evidence in a very convincing manner to support the theory that species change with time and  among them there is a struggle and the fittest survive. In modern classical biology the classification of organisms is based on his ideas.      

• Einstein Albert 1879 -1955

 

 Cafepress Poster
 Einstein - Imagination  AUD $24.50

Received the Nobel Prize for the explanation of the “photo electric effect”   He is considered as the Greatest Physicist after Galileo and Newton. His notable achievement is the popular equation    E = mc²   on which the Atomic bomb was based.      

(Please go to… Albert Einstein.)                      

 

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• Faraday Michael (England) 22/9/1791 to 25/8/1867

 

Fig. Kinetic energy    ↔  Electrical energy.

There would not  have been any electrical appliances if not for Faraday. He discovered the method of making electricity by the motion of a wire and how that energy can be made to produce motion. He was the father of Electro magnetism.  

•       Fermi  Enrico (Italian:)  29 /9/ 1901 – 28 /11/ 1954) icagi pile 1.
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Fermi  Enrico (Italian:)  29 /9/ 1901 – 28 /11/ 1954) icagi pile 1.
If not the father, he may be considered as  the "Uncle of the atomic bomb".
He was behind the first nuclear reactor built in a school playing field.
Played an invaluable role for the development of quantum theory and particle physics.
Received the Nobel Prize, physics  in 1938 for Artificial radioactivity produced by bombardment of neutrons..
Became an American citizen in 1938.