Studying the laws of nature, man has been engaged for several millennia ago. The lack of necessary instruments, times of religious dictatorship, difficult access to education for people without a significant fortune - all this could not stop the progress of scientific thought. Famous physicists from around the world were able to learn how to transmit information over long distances, receive electricity and much, much more. What are the most significant names in history? Let's list some of the most prominent specialists.
Albert Einstein
The future scientist was born in March 1879 in Ulm, Germany. Albert's ancestors lived in Swabia for several hundred years, and he himself retained the memory of their heritage until the very last days - he spoke with a slight South German accent. He was educated at a folk school, and then at a gymnasium, where from the very beginning he preferred natural science and the exact sciences. By the age of 16, he mastered everything that was necessary for admission to the university, but failed the language exam. Nevertheless, he soon became a student at the Polytechnic University in Zurich.
His teachers were famous physicists and mathematicians of that time, for example, Hermann Minkowski, who in the future will come up with an excellent formula for expressing the theoryrelativity. Einstein spent most of his time in the laboratory or reading the works of Maxwell, Kirchhoff, and other leading experts in the field. After studying, Albert was a teacher for some time, and then became a technical expert at the patent office, during the years of work in which he published many of his famous works, which glorified him throughout the world. He changed people's ideas about space, made a formula that turns mass into a form of energy, and deeply studied molecular physics. His success was soon awarded the Nobel Prize, and the scientist himself moved to the United States, where he worked until the end of his days.
Nikola Tesla
This Austrian-Hungarian inventor is perhaps the most famous physicist in the world.
Eccentric character and revolutionary discoveries made him famous and inspired several writers and directors to use his image in their work. He was born in July 1856 and from an early age, like many other well-known physicists, began to show his penchant for the exact sciences. Over the years of his work, he discovered the phenomenon of alternating current, fluorescent light and the transmission of energy without wires, developed remote control and a method of treating current, created an electric clock, a solar engine and many other unique devices, for which he received more than three hundred patents. In addition, it is believed that the famous physicists Popov and Marconi invented the radio, but Tesla was the first. The modern electric power industry is completely based on his personal achievements and discoveries. One of the most striking experiments of Nikola was the transmission of current for fifty kilometers. He managed to light two hundred electric light bulbs without any wires, building a huge tower from which lightning flew out, and thunder was heard throughout the area. Spectacular and risky venture became his trademark. By the way, this experience is often demonstrated in films.
Isaac Newton
Many famous physicists have made significant contributions, but Newton was something of a pioneer.
Its laws are the basis of many modern ideas, and at the time of their discovery it was a truly revolutionary achievement. The famous Englishman was born in 1643. Since childhood, he was interested in physics, and over the years he also wrote works on mathematics, astronomy, and optics. He was the first to formulate the elementary laws of nature, which greatly influenced the works of his contemporaries. It is not surprising that Isaac Newton was admitted to the Royal Society of London, and for some time was its president.
Lev Landau
Like many other well-known physicists, Landau most clearly showed himself in the theoretical field. The legendary Soviet scientist was born in January 1908, in the family of an engineer and a doctor. He studied brilliantly at school and entered the Baku university, where he studied physics and chemistry. By the age of nineteen he had already published four scientific papers. A brilliant career was devoted to the study of quantum states and density matrices, as well as electrodynamics. Landau's achievements were notedThe Nobel Prize, in addition, the Soviet scientist received several Stalin Prizes, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, was an honorary member of the Royal Society of London and several foreign Academies of Sciences. Collaborated with Heisenberg, Pauli and Bohr. The latter influenced Landau especially strongly - his ideas appeared in theories about the magnetic properties of free electrons.
James Maxwell
When compiling a list that would include the most famous physicists in the world, one cannot but mention this name. James Clerk Maxwell was a British scientist who developed classical electrodynamics. He was born in June 1831, and by 1860 he had become a member of the Royal Society of London. Maxwell created the country's first physical laboratory with professional equipment. There he studied electromagnetism, the kinetic theory of gases, optics, elasticity and other topics. He was one of the first to create a device for the quantitative measurement of colors, later called the Maxwell disk.
In his theories, he summarized all the known facts of electrodynamics and introduced the concept of displacement current, which generates a magnetic field. Maxwell expressed all laws in four equations. Their analysis allows us to clearly demonstrate patterns that were previously unknown.
Igor Kurchatov
A well-known nuclear physicist from the USSR also deserves a mention. Igor Kurchatov grew up in the Crimea, where he graduated from high school and university. Since 1924, he began working as an assistant at the Department of Physics at the Polytechnic Institute of Azerbaijan, and afteryear was hired in Leningrad. For the successful study of dielectrics, he was awarded the degree of doctor.
Under his leadership, already in 1939, the cyclotron was put into operation. Igor Kurchatov worked on nuclear reactions and headed the Soviet atomic project. Under his leadership, the first nuclear power plant was opened. Kurchatov created the first Soviet atomic and thermonuclear bomb. He received several state awards and medals for his achievements.
