Top Ten Physics Experiments Of All Times

MarkedMan writes "The New York Times is running an article about the top ten physics experiments of all time. You may disagree with the order, but it is hard to imagine pulling any one of these from the top ten. And most of them could be done by a patient amateur, at least one with access to cannonballs." The Times article wraps up the work by Robert P. Crease mentioned a few weeks ago.

What about the Michaelson-Morley experiment?

[BitterOak]

I find it astonishing that the Michaelson-Morley experiment, which was the basis for Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity didn't make the top ten list.

Special relativity changed the direction of physics in the 20th century. All modern physics incorporates it at a fundamental level. In some sense it is one of the most influential physics experiments of all time.

Re:physics

[Anonymous Cowrad]

Eventually the butter would dry up, leaving the toast bare.

It's also quite obvious that you've never tried to strap something to a cat.

Do good links

[gerardrj]

Editors:
PLEASE! When you link to a NYT article, link to the anonymizer page for it instead.

Millikan's oil drop and fraud

[arsheive]

Experiment #3, Millikan's oil drop, is widely regarded as the most famous example of cooking data in scientific history. This analysis [caltech.edu] by David Goodstein gives compelling evidence to the contrary. It in Goodstein claims that some of Millikan's unused data was the most supportive of his theory, and that even if he had used all the data he had gathered, it would not have made his results any less compelling.

(It seems Millikan had many other strikes against him. The question of fraud is brought up on page 3.)

Re:What about the Michaelson-Morley experiment?

[Anonymous Coward]

>>MM experiment completely destroyed the worldview at the time.

no it didn't. Einstein probably wasn't aware of it, few others took notice until years later when it fitted neatly into textbooks and was shoehorned into the worldview of experiment/theory.

History of science museum at Firenze(Florence)

[panurge]

/.ers might like to know that the Museum of the History of Science (Storia della Scienza) at Florence has explanatory models of what Galileo actually did, experimentally, along with some other very nice stuff which I won't spoil for you by telling. It was fun watching a class of Italian schoolkids having it demonstrated to them by an enthusiastic teacher when I was there. It also has some of his mathematical instruments: in terms of the technology of the time, Galileo was like the HP of his day, designing and building instruments to further technological progress.

Re:What about the Michaelson-Morley experiment?

[DavidBrown]

Michaelson was an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy at the time, and the experiment took place there (one end of it, anyway). There's a series of two-inch brass markers in the concrete between two of the Naval Academy's academic buildings indicating the path over which the experiment took place.

It's right between Chauvenet, and - wait for it - Michaelson halls.

Re:Thought experiments vs experiments

[Jim.McGinness]

OK, I read the article again.

Even more interesting, the ones I picked out as gedanken experiments were ranked 1 and 2.

The passage I remembered from Galileo's Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences has been thoughtfully excerpted and placed online [virginia.edu].