Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, and Blaise Pascal are hanging out one afternoon. Einstein is bored, so he suggests, “Let’s play hide and seek! I’ll be it!”.
Category Archives: Physics
Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity on March 1, 1896
On March 1, 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel (15 December 1852 – 25 August 1908) accidentally discovered radioactivity.
Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Ohm are in a car [Joke about physics]
Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, and Georg Ohm are in a car and they get pulled over. Heisenberg is the driver and the police officer asks him: “Do you know how fast you were going?”
Is Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Travel possible? Dr. Harold “Sonny” White and Limitless Space
Is faster-than-light (FTL) travel possible? Ever since astronomers found that Earth and the Solar System are not unique in the cosmos, humanity has dreamed of the day when we might explore nearby stars and settle extrasolar planets. Unfortunately, the laws of physics impose strict limitations on how fast things can travel in our Universe, otherwise …
Einstein’s general theory of relativity was proven on May 29, 1919, during a solar eclipse
On May 29, 1919, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which was just four-year-old at the time, was put to its first test during a total solar eclipse. Albert Einstein’s prediction of the bending of light by the gravity of the Sun, one of the components of his general theory of relativity, could be tested by …
Electrolysis of water was discovered on May 2, 1800
On May 2, 1800, English chemist William Nicholson (13 December 1753 – 21 May 1815), decomposed water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. This was the first electrolysis of water. The name “electrolysis” was given to this process in 1834 by another English scientist Michael Faraday (22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867). Nicholson had …
Continue reading “Electrolysis of water was discovered on May 2, 1800”
J. J. Thompson announced the existence of electrons on April 30, 1897
On April 30, 1897, British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, Sir Joseph John Thomson (commonly known as J. J. Thompson, 18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) announced the existence of electrons. Thompson called the particles “corpuscles”, meaning “small bodies”, but later scientific community preferred the name electron which had been suggested by the …
Continue reading “J. J. Thompson announced the existence of electrons on April 30, 1897”
The atom was split for the first time on April 14, 1932: The story of splitting the atom
On April 14, 1932, the English physicist Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and the Irish physicist Ernest Walton split the atom for the first time using the nuclear particle accelerator they built, also the first particle accelerator in history. Cockcroft and Walton won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for their “work on the transmutation of …
Fred Hoyle unintentionally coined the term “Big Bang” on March 28, 1949
On March 28, 1949, the English astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) unintentionally coined the term “Big Bang”. In fact, Hoyle was thinking the idea that the universe had a beginning to be pseudoscience and he was arguing the universe as being in a “steady-state”. Today’s (March 28) story of …
Continue reading “Fred Hoyle unintentionally coined the term “Big Bang” on March 28, 1949″
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was published as an academic paper on March 20, 1916
On March 20, 1916, Albert Einstein sent a paper to Annalen der Physik, one of the oldest scientific journals on physics which has been published since 1799. The study was titled “Die Grundlage der Allgemeinen Relativitatstheorie”, translated as “The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity.” It was the first comprehensive overview of the final …
