Famous Physicists
This Danish scientist introduced the model of the atom with electrons orbiting the nucleus in discrete energy levels.
Who is Niels Bohr?
The reason your seat belt locks when a car stops suddenly is due to this principle of motion.
What is inertia?
This experiment in 1887 provided the first strong evidence against the “luminiferous ether.”
What is the Michelson–Morley experiment?
CU Boulder is home to one of the world’s leading research groups in this branch of physics, which studies how lasers interact with these things.
What is atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics?
This type of galaxy has a flattened disk shape with spiral arms and a central bulge, containing both young and old stars.
What is a spiral galaxy?
This German physicist explained blackbody radiation with the idea of quantized energy.
Who is Max Planck?
The rainbow colors seen on a soap bubble are caused by this phenomenon of light waves.
What is interference?
The nucleus is held together by this fundamental force, which overcomes the repulsion of protons.
What is the strong nuclear force?
This CU Boulder professor won the 2001 Nobel Prize for pioneering laser cooling techniques.
Who is Eric Cornell?
A star’s luminosity, radius, and surface temperature are related by this law, which states that the total emitted energy per unit time is proportional to the fourth power of temperature.
What is the Stefan–Boltzmann law?
This physicist formulated the principle of least action, a cornerstone of classical mechanics.
Who is Joseph-Louis Lagrange?
The reason your cell phone must be held upright for best signal reception comes from its antenna design, which relies on this property of electromagnetic waves.
What is polarization?
In quantum mechanics, this effect allows particles to cross barriers that they do not have enough energy to overcome classically.
What is quantum tunneling?
CU Boulder researchers collaborate closely with this nearby federal institute responsible for precision measurement and standards.
What is NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)?
This type of variable star, whose brightness changes periodically, is used as a “standard candle” to measure cosmic distances.
What is a Cepheid variable?
This scientist was the first African American woman to receive a PhD in physics, known for her work on ultrasonics.
Who is Willie Hobbs Moore?
The reason metal feels colder to the touch than wood at the same temperature is because of this property.
What is thermal conductivity?
This type of particle is its own antiparticle and was first predicted by Ettore Majorana in 1937.
What is a Majorana fermion?
This CU Boulder physicist co-developed the first widely used technique for stabilizing laser frequencies with extreme precision.
Who is Theodor W. Hänsch?
This type of supernova results from the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf in a binary system.
What is a Type 1a supernova?
This CU Boulder–affiliated physicist shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on laser-based precision spectroscopy.
Who is John L. Hall?
The rainbow-colored patterns that appear on tempered car windows or phone screens under polarized light are caused by this effect, which reveals internal stresses in transparent materials.
What is birefringence (stress-induced double refraction)?
In the Davisson–Germer experiment, electrons scattered off a crystal exhibited a diffraction pattern. This observation provided direct confirmation of which principle linking a particle’s momentum to a wave property, forming a cornerstone of quantum mechanics?
What is de Broglie’s hypothesis (matter-wave duality)?
CU Boulder physicists contributed to the first observation of this property of superfluid helium, demonstrating quantized vortices in a macroscopic quantum system.
What is quantized circulation in superfluid helium?
When a massive star collapses, it may produce a black hole. The maximum mass for a neutron star before it collapses further is approximately this limit, named after a physicist.
What is the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit?