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Here is a list of Famous Scientists and the experiments/discoveries that made them famous. The AP B Physics exam often references these individuals or asks you to design and experiment based on their experiment. FRQ experiment design is a theme that fits well with AP B’s new “inquiry-based” model.

Super-Super important – Previous FRQ questions have been asked based on this experiment.

Super important- Previous Multiple choice Question have referenced this scientist/experiment or this topic has great potential for Future FRQ question.

Important – these experiments changed the path of physics and society. Super-Super Important

 Galileo Galilei uses rolling balls to disprove the Aristotelian theory of motion (1602–1607)  Albert Einstein demonstrates the particle nature of light with his Photoelectric Effect experiment. Einstein also presents his Special and General Theories of Relativity.  Robert Boyle shows that the volume of a given amount of gas is inversely related to the pressure upon it (1660)  Benjamin Franklin in 1747 describes experiments demonstrating negative and positive electrical charge, and in his 1752 kite experiment shows that lightning is a form of electrical discharge.  Alessandro Volta constructs a new source of electricity, the electrical battery (1796)  Henry Cavendish's torsion bar experiment measures the force of gravity in a laboratory (1798)  Thomas Young shows that light is wave and particle at the same time in his double-slit experiment (c. 1805)  Hans Christian Ørsted discovers the connection of electricity and magnetism by experiments involving a compass and electric circuits (1820)  Michael Faraday discovers magnetic induction[disambiguation needed ] in an experiment with a closed ring of soft iron, with two windings of wire (1831)  James Prescott Joule demonstrates the mechanical equivalent of heat, an important step in the development of thermodynamics (1834)  J. J. Thomson's cathode ray tube experiments (discovers the electron and its negative charge) (1897)  Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment, which suggests that electric charge occurs as quanta (whole units), (1909)  Ernest Rutherford's gold foil experiment demonstrated that the positive charge and mass of an atom is concentrated in a small, central atomic nucleus, disproving the then-popular plum pudding model of the atom (1911) Super-Important

 Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach conduct the Stern-Gerlach experiment, which demonstrates particle spin (1920)  Christian Doppler arranges to have trumpets played from a passing train. The ground-observed pitch was higher than that played when the train was approaching then lower than that played as the train passed and moved away, demonstrating the Doppler effect (1845)  Enrico Fermi splits the atom (1934, although the results were not fully understood until 1939, by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann)  Enrico Fermi and Leó Szilárd build the first critical nuclear reactor (1942)  John Bardeen and Walter Brattain fabricate the first working transistor (1947)  Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines confirm the existence of the neutrino in the neutrino experiment (1955)  The Scout rocket experiment confirms the time dilation effect of gravity. (1976)  Alain Aspect performs the Bell test experiments in the 1980s.  Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman synthesize Bose-Einstein condensate at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1995)  Eratosthenes evaluates the diameter of the Earth by comparing the length of the shortest shadow of the day with the distance between that location and a place where the sun shines to the bottom of the well at midday (240 BC)  Otto von Guericke demonstrates atmospheric pressure using Magdeburg hemispheres (1654)  Léon Foucault's namesake Foucault pendulum is first exhibited. It demonstrates the Coriolis effect and the rotation of the Earth (1851)  Edwin Hall discovers a voltage across a conductor with a transverse applied magnetic field, the Hall effect (1879)  Michelson-Morley experiment exposes weaknesses of the prevailing variant of the theory of luminiferous aether (1887)  Heinrich Hertz demonstrates free space electromagnetic waves, predicted by Maxwell's equations, with a simple dipole antenna and spark gap oscillator (1887) Important

 Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates that radio signals can travel between two points separated by an obstacle. Marconi's servant is behind a hill 3 kilometers away and fires his rifle upon receiving the signals (1895).  Loránd Eötvös publishes the result of the second series of experiments, clearly demonstrating that inertial and gravitational mass are one and the same. (1909)  Arthur Eddington leads an expedition to the island of Principe to observe a total solar eclipse (gravitational lensing). This allows for an observation of the bending of starlight under gravity, a prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It was confirmed (although it was later shown that the margin of error was as great as the observed bending) (1919)  Heike Kamerlingh Onnes demonstrates superconductivity (1911)