Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman was born #OTD in 1865.
In 1896, while studying the effect of magnetic fields on the light emitted by a sodium flame, Zeeman observed that the spectral lines of the light split into multiple components in the presence of a magnetic field- the Zeeman effect.
In 1902, Pieter Zeeman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Hendrik Lorentz, for the discovery of the Zeeman effect and its theoretical explanation.
INTERIOR OF THE PHYSICAL LABORATORY AT PASADENA Showing slit end of vertical spectrograph and magnet used in study of Zeeman effect. Electric arcs, electric furnaces, pressure pumps, and electro-magnets are available for spectroscopic studies. via @interarchivehttps://archive.org/details/reviewofreviewsw42newy/page/202/mode/1up?view=theater
A couple of weeks ago, I posted an #animation of a point on a circle generating a #cycloid.
If you turn the curve "upside down", you get the #BrachistochroneCurve. This curve provides the shortest travel time starting from one cusp to any other point on the curve for a ball rolling under uniform #gravity. It is always faster than the straight-line travel time.
Anyway, the #animation took a bit of thought as it requires a bit of #Mechanics, some #Integration and is made a bit more tricky as the curve is multi-valued and so you need to treat different branches separately. The #AnimatedGif was produce with #WxMaxima.
German mineralogist and physicist Franz Ernst Neumann died #OTD in 1895.
Neumann made significant advances in the mathematical understanding of crystal structures & their physical properties. His work laid the groundwork for the field of crystallography. He also developed the concept of the piezoelectric effect in crystals.In 1831, he established the Neumann's Law: the molecular heat of a compound is equal to the sum of the atomic heats of its constituents.
Particle physics and cosmology go hand-in-hand, despite the vast difference in scales. So when something new starts brewing in the quantum world, we pay attention. On this week’s Big Picture Science - could physics experiments take us “Beyond the Standard Model?”
#ChatGPT4o told me to call the manager. So much for sneaking in and discovering glueball particles on my own. This stinks. I want my money back, #ChatGPT!
French mathematician and engineer Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis was born #OTD in 1792.
He is best known for his work on the supplementary forces that are detected in a rotating frame of reference, leading to the Coriolis effect. He was the first to apply the term "work" for the transfer of energy by a force acting through a distance, and he prefixed the factor ½ to Leibniz's concept of vis viva, thus specifying today's kinetic energy.
Something interesting is rumbling in the physics community. Are we on the brink of discovering a new force of nature? At least one particle physicist thinks so. We venture “Beyond the Standard Model” on Big Picture Science.
Entropy balance and time travel in the MCU
(need to know the concept of entropy and homeostasis, and the previous principles of MCU)...