You Gotta Know These 20th Century Physicists

Question 1

reconciled Rutherford’s results from the gold foil experiment with Max Planck’s quantum theory to create a model of the atom in which electrons resided in specific energy levels at specific stable radii

Answer 1

Niels Bohr

Question 2

His model was the basis for Johann Balmer’s work with spectroscopy and Johannes Rydberg’s energy formula

Answer 2

Niels Bohr

Question 3

He and his son fled to the U.S. in World War II under the pseudonym “Baker,” and contributed to the Manhattan Project.

Answer 3

Niels Bohr

Question 4

proposed that all particles have a characteristic wavelength dependent on their momentum, which Einstein endorsed

Answer 4

Louis de Broglie

Question 5

In opposition to the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics, he later worked to define a purely causal interpretation, but his work remained unfinished until David Bohm refined it in the 1950s.

Answer 5

Louis de Broglie

Question 6

quantified the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics

Answer 6

Louis de Broglie

Question 7

had an annus mirabilis (miracle year)

Answer 7

Albert Einstein

Question 8

explained the photoelectric effect in terms of quantized electromagnetic radiation

Answer 8

Albert Einstein

Question 9

formed the foundation for modern statistical physics by explaining the seemingly-random motion of particles in a fluid, a behavior called Brownian motion

Answer 9

Albert Einstein

Question 10

reconciled Maxwellian electrodynamics with classical mechanics by positing a finite, constant speed of light, a theory now known as special relativity

Answer 10

Albert Einstein

Question 11

published his theory of general relativity, which generalized special relativity to account for gravitational fields

Answer 11

Albert Einstein

Question 12

best known to the public as a main contributor to the Manhattan Project

Answer 12

Enrico Fermi

Question 13

applied the Pauli exclusion principle to subatomic particles to create Namesake-Dirac statistics, which accurately predicted the low-temperature behavior of electrons. Particles that obey these statistics are fermions.

Answer 13

Enrico Fermi

Question 14

suggested the existence of the neutrino in order to balance nuclear beta-decay chains.

Answer 14

Enrico Fermi

Question 15

created quantum electrodynamics

Answer 15

Richard Feynman

Question 16

developed a mathematical formalism called the path integral formulation of quantum theory that utilized the “sum over histories,”

Answer 16

Richard Feynman

Question 17

developed namesake diagrams, which illustrate the interaction of subatomic particles

Answer 17

Richard Feynman

Question 18

accomplished bongo player and sketch artist.

Answer 18

Richard Feynman

Question 19

was one of the first to explain the implications of the Big Bang theory of cosmology

Answer 19

George Gamow

Question 20

correctly predicted the abundance of hydrogen and helium in the early universe, nicknamed Alpher-Bethe-namesake theory (an intentional pun on the first three letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha, beta, and gamma)

Answer 20

George Gamow

Question 21

theorized that the the heat from the Big Bang would still be visible as the cosmic microwave background radiation

Answer 21

George Gamow

Question 22

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, as well as two later observers, John Mather and George Smoot, did receive Nobels for Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation although this physicist didn’t

Answer 22

George Gamow

Question 23

known for his matrix interpretation of quantum theory, which constructs observable quantities as operators that act on a system

Answer 23

Werner Heisenberg

Question 24

His famous uncertainty principle states that the more accurately an object’s position can be observed, the less accurately its momentum can

Answer 24

Werner Heisenberg

Question 25

discovered the allotropic forms of hydrogen.

Answer 25

Werner Heisenberg

Question 26

solved the ultraviolet catastrophe, which was a predicted unbounded increase in the amount of radiation emitted at high frequencies

Answer 26

Max Planck

Question 27

His namesake Law of Radiation superseded the Rayleigh-Jeans Law

Answer 27

Max Planck

Question 28

suggested that electromagnetic energy could only be emitted in specific packages, called quanta (singular quantum)

Answer 28

Max Planck

Question 29

posited that the energy of this photon was equal to its frequency times a fixed value h, now known as his namesake constant.

Answer 29

Max Planck

Question 30

his gold foil experiment provided the first evidence that each atom is made up of a large, positively-charged nucleus, surrounded by a cloud of negatively-charged electrons

Answer 30

Ernest Rutherford

Question 31

an early leader in nuclear fission techniques, having discovered the decay of carbon-14 and providing the impetus for modern carbon dating

Answer 31

Ernest Rutherford

Question 32

discovered the proton and neutron, the latter in cooperation with James Chadwick

Answer 32

Ernest Rutherford

Question 33

He is the only native New Zealander with an element named after him (Rutherfordium)

Answer 33

Ernest Rutherford

Question 34

contributed to the early formulations of quantum theory as a foil to Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and Paul Dirac, criticizing their Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics with thought experiments like his famous namesake Cat

Answer 34

Erwin Schrödinger

Question 35

formulated both the time-independent and time-dependent namesake equations, which are partial differential equations that describe how quantum systems behave

Answer 35

Erwin Schrödinger

Question 36

work was the basis for Heisenberg’s matrix formalism, Feynman’s path-integral formalism, and quantum mechanical perturbation theory

Answer 36

Erwin Schrödinger

Question 37

these two scientists isolated and experimented on radioactive materials

Answer 37

Marie and Pierre Curie

Question 38

one of the first to attempt a generalization of quantum theory to relativistic speeds, the result of which was the namesake equation.

Answer 38

Paul Dirac

Question 39

predicted the existence of quarks

Answer 39

Murray Gell-Mann

Question 40

determined the charge of the electron by meticulously observing oil droplets in an electric field and noting the time it took them to fall a certain distance

Answer 40

Robert Millikan

Question 41

oversaw much of the Manhattan Project, but was later stripped of his security clearance during the McCarthy-era Red Scare, as a result of his acquaintance with communists and his enmity with Edward Teller.

Answer 41

Robert Oppenheimer

Question 42

his namesake exclusion principle prohibits most types of particles from occupying the same state, and forms the basis for chemical bonds.

Answer 42

Wolfgang Pauli