Famous Scientists

Archimedes

Archimedes
Source : en.wikipedia.org

Archimedes was a Greek scientist. He discovered the principle, subsequently named after him, after noticing that the water in a bathtub overflowed when he stepped into it. He ran through the streets shouting "Eureka!", which means " I have got it ". This knowledge helped him to determine the purity of the gold in the crown made for the king. His work in the field of Geometry and Mechanics made him famous. His understanding of levers, pulleys, wheels and axle helped the Greek army in its war with Roman army.



                         


Sir  Issac Newton

Sir Issac Newton
Source : scienceworld.wolfram.com

Issac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe near Grantham, England. He is generally regarded as the most original and influential theorist in the history of science. He was born in a poor farming family. But he was not good at at farming. He was sent to study at Cambridge University in 1661. In 1665 a plague broke out in Cambridge and so Newton took a year off. It was during this year that the incident of apple falling on his head is said to have occurred. This incident prompted Newton to explore the possibility connecting gravity with the force that kept moon in its orbit. This led to the universal law of Gravitation. It is remarkable that many great scientists before him knew of gravity but failed to realize it.





Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei
Source : en.wikipedia.org

Galileo Galilei was born on 15 February 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo, right from his childhood, had interest in mathematics and natural philosophy. But his father Vincenzo Galileo wanted him to become a medical doctor. Accordingly, Galileo enrolled himself for a medical degree at the University of Pisa in 1851 which he never completed because of his real interest in mathematics. In 1586, he wrote his first scientific book " The Little Balance ( La Balancitta ) ", in which he described Archimedes' methods of finding the relative densities ( or specific gravities ) of substances using a  balance. In 1589, in his series of essays - De Motu, he presented his theories about falling objects using an inclined plane to slow down the rate of descent. Galileo was remarkable craftsman. He developed a series of telescopes whose optical performance was much better than that days of other telescopes available during those days. Around 1640, he designed the first pendulum clock. Using his own telescopes and through his observations on Saturn and Venus, Galileo argued that all planets must orbit the Sun and not the earth, contrary to what was believed at that time.




James Prescott Joule

James Prescott Joule
Source : en.wikipedia.org

James Prescott Joule was an outstanding British physicist. He is better known for his research in electricity and thermodynamics. Amongst  other things, he formulated a law for the heating effect of electric current. He also verified experimentally the law of conservation of energy and discovered the value of the mechanical equivalent of heat. The unit of energy and work called joule, is named after him.






Heinrich Rudolph Hertz
                                                                                                                       

H.R Hertz
Source : en.wikipedia.org

 Heinrich Rudolph Hertz was born on 22 February 1857 in Hamburg, Germany and educated at the University of Berlin. He confirmed J.C. Maxwell's electromagnetic theory by his experiments. He laid the foundation for future development of radio, telephone, telegraph and even television. He also discovered the photoelectric effect which was later explained by Albert Einstein. The SI unit frequency was named as hertz in his honour.