FOUNDING FIGURES OF PHYSICS
Physics is a branch of science that strives to understand the interdependence between matter and energy. Through different periods the discipline has evolved due to breakthrough discoveries and innovations that have revolutionized how everything works within the universe. The following are some of the prominent scholars that have influenced the growth of physics as a discourse.
- Galileo Galilei(1564-1642)
Galileo is an Italian scholar described by many as the father of modern physics. His life began in Pisa situated in the Duchy of Florence on 15th February 1564. After a while, the family relocated to Florence where he undertook his early studies at the Camaldolese monastery positioned in Vallombrosa. Later he went ahead to pursue medicine at the University of Pisa. At the university, he became fascinated by the Aristotelian school of thought which was by then sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church. Due to financial difficulty, he had to step down from the university. However, he would later proceed to earn his degree and become a professor at the University of Padua pursuing astronomy, geometry, and mechanics.
Galileo’s professional career spun over 18 years where he authored numerous books such as The operations of the geometrical and military compass; the starry messenger; Discourse on bodies in water and two new sciences. Throughout his lifetime Galileo was credited with numerous discoveries and inventions. One of them being the Telescope which he used to ascertain that the moon has craters and mountains. He also identified the four largest satellites of Jupiter namely; Europa, Caristo Ganymede, and Io. He was also accredited with inventing the glass bulb thermometer referred to as the Galileo thermometer. Additionally, he was also credited with creating the hydrostatic balance used for measuring small objects. Furthermore, Galileo was appreciated for his numerous theories on motion specifically the universal law of acceleration.
- Sir Isaac Newton(1643-1727)
Isaac Newton is an English scholar best known for pioneering the law o gravity. His life began in the small town of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire in England on 4th January 1643. His education was delayed by a botched attempt to convert him into a farmer. After which he attended the King’s School at Grantham before getting admitted to Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in the year 1661. Newton studied classical philosophy at Cambridge but was intrigued by contemporary philosophers like René Descartes and he also dedicated a series of notes to his early readings titled ‘Quaestiones Quaedam Philosophicae’
Consequently, Newton would eventually return to Cambridge where he discovered that white light was a combination of all the colors on the spectrum, through his experiments with refraction, and confirmed that light was made of particles rather than waves. Furthermore, in 1687, Newton publishes the three rules on motion and universal law of gravity namely “Philosophiae Naturalis principia Mathematica”b(Mathematics Principles of Natural Philosophy). The three laws of movement by Newton state that (1) every object in a state of uniform movement shall remain so unless controlled by an external force; (2) force is equal to the multiplication of acceleration and mass: F = MA and (3) There is an equal and opposite reaction in each action.
- Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782)
Daniel Bernoulli is a Swiss mathematician and physicist best recognized for his ground-breaking work in hydrodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases. His life began on 29th January 1700 in Gröningen, Netherlands. He became his 16-year-old brother Nicholas’ pupil when he was 11. Afterward, he proceeded to Italy where he completed his studies with a degree in medicine. Thereafter he became a professor of mathematics in St. Petersburg, Russia. After eight years, because of his health, he returned to Switzerland. Initially, he was a professor of anatomy and botany then he switched to experimental and speculative philosophy. He was regarded as the mathematical physics forefather by pioneering the use of “g” as a sign for the acceleration of gravity.
Furthermore, Hydrodynamica was published by Bernoulli in 1738. His famous equation of fluids governs the flux in terms of speed, pressure, and potential energy, based on many modern technologies, particularly aerodynamics, in the treatise, which was far ahead of his time in many ways. He was also interested in the practical and theoretical application and conceived several experiments showing the effects that he had predicted.
- Benjamin Franklin( 1706-1790)
Benjamin Franklin is an American bearing many caps including being a Polymath, inventor, physicist, writer, and politician. Franklin was born in the so-called Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston on 17th January 1706. Franklin learned to read early in life, but he left formal schooling Latin School in Boston at the age of ten and was working in his fathers’ candle and soap shop to earn some income. Franklin was a prolific inventor and physicist known for the inventions which include the Franklin stove which was among his first inventions created around 1740 and was meant to bring about less fuel and more heat.
Moreover, Benjamin was credited for the Bifocals which are two sets of charges “positive” and “negative” charges. Additionally, he invented the Armonica in 1761 as a musical instrument composed of spinning glass bowls on a shaft started its development on the harmonica. The strange instrument was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Upon returning from London to the Atlantic in 1775, Franklin also discovered the Gulf Stream. He began to wonder that the westbound trip still took longer, and his ocean temperature observations led him to discover the presence of the Gulf Stream.
- Emilie du Chatelet (1706 – 1749)
Emilie du Chatelet grew up in a family, where courting was the only way to please the society. She was born in Paris on 17th December 1706. Emilie began to make inroads into academia during her early childhood and was soon able to convince her father that she needed to pursue education. She studied and soon mastered Latin, Italian and English, provided a relatively good education for the time. She also studied Tasso and Virgil and Milton, as well as other fine scholars. Even though she did not offer much as another physicists on the list. She was a pioneer during times that women were not taken up as proper scholars. The most enduring contribution to science was Du Chatelet’s French translation, still used today, of Isaac Newton’s Principe.