The world does not stand still, everything flows and changes, the planet rotates around its axis, a thunderstorm always comes with lightning and thunder, and leaves fall to the ground. And it was things that were simple at first glance that aroused a person’s interest in the exact and natural sciences.
Famous physicists of the world
The history of physics goes back several thousand years. In its origins, closely intertwined with mathematics, chemistry and even philosophy, this science initially studied matter in its tranquility and in interaction with the world, placing this knowledge as the basis for other disciplines, because everything in the world can be explained by physical laws.
Many great physicists have dedicated their lives to trying to find answers to questions that humanity needs:
- Galileo Galilei is an Italian physicist who laid down the laws of mechanics and the motion of bodies. Known for his works in the field of natural science and astronomy.
- John Dalton - English physicist and chemist, who spent his life studying gases and their properties, was the first to formulate the theory atomic structure substances.
- Lev Landau is the father of the doctrines of magnetism, quantum electromechanics, and astrophysics. He has written works on superconductors, as well as discoveries in the field of atomic and thermonuclear physics.
- Blaise Pascal was a physicist who studied the laws of hydraulics.
- Irene Joliot-Curie, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie-Sklodowska - the Curie family, famous for their discoveries in the field of radioactive elements and radioactivity.
- Albert Einstein - German physicist, who outlined and substantiated the essence of the theory of relativity.
- Ernest Rutherford, Georg Ohm, Andre-Marie Ampere are scientists who made a number of fundamental discoveries in the field of electromagnetism and electric current.
Famous physicists world - there are hundreds of talented scientists, among whom are Michael Faraday, John Bardeen, Max Planck, Robert Boyle, Paul Dirac.
Russian contribution
The luminaries of Russian science also did not stand aside. Numerous works and discoveries of such great people as Alexander Stoletov, Alexander Popov, Dmitry Mendeleev, Abram Ioffe, Igor Kurchatov, Pyotr Lebedev, Emilius Lenz, Alexander Prokhorov, left their significant mark on the development of physics.
Dmitry Mendeleev created a universal table of chemical elements, which is still being updated with new elements.
Modern physicists in Russia are a whole galaxy of young and talented scientists, many of whom are followers of their eminent ancestors: Sergei Kapitsa, Vitaly Ginzburg, Zhores Alferov, Andrei Sakharov. They develop current trends, improving and promoting scientific progress forward.
Various devices and inventions made on the basis of discoveries and knowledge in the field of this fundamental science have significantly simplified the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and are successfully used in all spheres of life, especially in medicine, aerodynamics and the military industry.
One of the most ancient and important scientific disciplines is physics - the science that studies the properties of matter, the basis of all natural science.
It is for this reason that physics is considered fundamental science. Other natural sciences (biology, chemistry, geology, etc.) describe separate classes material systems, which ultimately obey physical laws.
James Watt (1736 - 1819), Scottish physicist and inventor, was born in England on January 19, 1736. The creator of the first universal steam engine, he did not have special education, at first he was a skilled and talented toolmaker and served at the University of Glasgow.
Watt's road to world fame began with ordinary, routine work. One day he was assigned to repair a model of Newcomen's steam engine. He couldn't cope until he realized that the reason was not the breakdown of the model, but the principles underlying it. One day, while walking, Watt came up with the idea to separate the condenser for cooling the steam and the working cylinder. Using this principle, Watt creates his model of a steam engine, which is still kept in the London Museum. Due to its efficiency, Watt's steam engine received wide use and had great value during the transition to machine production. During the 1800s, much of the energy produced by British industry was supplied by steam engines Watt.
James Watt introduced the first unit of power - horsepower. He also designed instruments that were later common: a mercury vacuum gauge, a mercury open manometer, a water measuring glass for boilers, and a pressure indicator. He also invented copying ink (1780) and established the composition of water (1781).
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the inventor of the telephone. The Bell family from Scotland moved to Canada and later to the USA. Bell was neither a physicist nor an electrical engineer by training. He started as an assistant music teacher and oratory skills, and later worked with people who had lost their hearing or suffered from speech impediments.
Bell was very eager to help these people. His great love for a girl who lost her hearing after an illness prompted him to design instruments and devices with which he demonstrated the articulation of speech to the deaf. In Boston he opened educational institution, where he trained teachers for the deaf. In 1893, A. Bell received the title of professor of physiology of speech organs at Boston University. Subsequently, he studied physics in depth human speech, acoustics and soon begins to conduct experiments using an apparatus in which a membrane transmits sound vibrations. He gradually approached the idea of creating a telephone that would allow the transmission different sounds, if it is possible to cause fluctuations in electric current that correspond in intensity to the air vibrations produced by this sound.
Soon A. Bell changes the direction of his activities and begins work on creating a telegraph that would be able to transmit several texts simultaneously. During this work, an accident helped to discover the phenomenon that led to the invention of the telephone.
One day, Bell's assistant was removing a record from the transmitter. At this time, Bell heard a rattling sound in the receiving device. As it turned out, this plate closed and opened electrical circuit. Bell took this observation very seriously. A few days later the first telephone was made, which consisted of a small membrane made from drum skin and a signal horn to amplify the sound. It was this device that became the progenitor of all telephones.
Euclid
Euclid (c. 365 - 300 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician.
He created a large work called “Principles” - a presentation of the geometry that is known to this day under the name Euclidean geometry.
Euclid, an ancient Greek mathematician, best known as the author of the Elements, the most famous textbook in history.
Information about Euclid is extremely scarce. Apart from a few anecdotes, we only know that Euclid's teachers in Athens were students of Plato, and during the reign of Ptolemy I (306–283 BC) he taught at the newly founded school in Alexandria.
Works called Elements appeared even before Euclid. Thus, we know about the existence of the Elements of Hippocrates of Chios (c. 430–400 BC) and some other authors, but the Elements of Euclid surpassed the works of his predecessors and for more than two millennia remained the main work on elementary mathematics. In 13 parts, or books, the Beginnings are contained most of knowledge of geometry and arithmetic from the era of Euclid. His personal contribution boiled down to arranging the material in such a way that each theorem would logically follow from the previous ones. Book I begins with definitions, unprovable postulates and " general concepts", and ends with the Pythagorean theorem and its converse theorem. From antiquity until the 19th century, attempts were made repeatedly to prove the fifth postulate (“about parallels”). Only in the 19th century was it finally recognized that Euclid was right in believing that V the postulate cannot be deduced from the other four postulates. The negation of postulate V lies... Read more
Carl Gauss
Karl Gauss (1777-1855), - German mathematician, astronomer and physicist. He created the theory of “primordial” roots from which the construction of a 17-gon flowed. One of the greatest mathematicians of all time.
Carl Friedrich Gauss was born on April 30, 1777 in Brunswick. He inherited from his father's family good health, and from my mother’s family there is a bright intellect.
At the age of seven, Karl Friedrich entered Catherine's public school. Since they started counting there in the third grade, they did not pay attention to little Gauss for the first two years. Students usually entered third grade at the age of ten and studied there until confirmation (age fifteen). Teacher Büttner had to teach the children at the same time of different ages And different training. Therefore, he usually gave some of the students long calculation tasks in order to be able to talk with other students. Once a group of students, among whom was Gauss, was asked to sum up integers from 1 to 100. As they completed the task, the students had to place their slates on the teacher's table. The order of the boards was taken into account when grading. Ten-year-old Karl put down his board as soon as Büttner finished dictating the task. To everyone's surprise, only he had the correct answer. The secret was simple: the task was dictated for now. Gauss managed to rediscover for himself the formula for the sum arithmetic progression! The fame of the miracle child spread... Read more
Leonard Euler
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), - Russian, German and Swiss mathematician. Analyzed infinitesimals. Thanks to his work, mathematical analysis has become a fully formed science.
Born on April 15, 1707 in Basel (Switzerland). He graduated from the local gymnasium and attended lectures by I. Bernoulli at the University of Basel. In 1723 he received a master's degree. In 1726, by invitation St. Petersburg Academy Sciences came to Russia and was appointed adjunct in mathematics.
In 1730 he took the chair of physics, and in 1733 he became an academician. During his 15 years in Russia, Euler managed to write the world's first textbook theoretical mechanics, as well as a course in mathematical navigation and many other works.
In 1741 he accepted the offer Prussian king Frederick II and moved to Berlin. But even at this time the scientist did not break ties with St. Petersburg. In 1746, three volumes of Euler's articles on ballistics were published.
In 1749, he published a two-volume work, for the first time setting out issues of navigation in mathematical form. Numerous discoveries made... Read more
Francois Viet
François Viète (1540-1603), - French mathematician who laid the foundation for algebra as the science of transforming expressions, solving equations in general view, creator of alphabetic calculus.
Viet François was born in the town of Fontenay-le-Comte in the province of Poitou. Having received legal education, from the age of nineteen he successfully practiced law in hometown. As a lawyer, Viet enjoyed authority and respect among the population. He was wide educated person. Knew astronomy and mathematics and everything free time gave to these sciences.
While privately teaching astronomy to the daughter of a noble client, Viet came up with the idea of composing a work devoted to improving the Ptolemaic system. He then proceeded to develop trigonometry and apply it to the solution algebraic equations. In 1571, Viète moved to Paris and there he met the mathematician Pierre Ramus. Thanks to his talent and partly thanks to the marriage of his former student with the Prince de Rohan, Viet made brilliant career and became an adviser to Henry III, and after his death, Henry IV.
But Vieth's main passion was mathematics. He deeply studied the works of the classics Archimedes and Diophantus, the closest predecessors of Cardano, Bombelli, Stevin and others. Viet not only admired them, he saw a big flaw in them, which was the difficulty of understanding due to verbal symbolism.
Almost all actions and signs were recorded in words; there was no hint of those convenient, almost automatic rules that we now use. It was impossible to write down and, therefore, begin in a general form algebraic comparisons or any other algebraic expressions. Each type of equation with numerical coefficients was solved... Read more
Perelman Grigory Yakovlevich
Grigory Yakovlevich Perelman was born on June 13, 1966 in Leningrad.
Russian scientist who proved the Poincaré conjecture, one of the fundamental problems of mathematics. Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He worked at the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) department of the Steklov Mathematical Institute and taught at a number of US universities. Since 2003, he has not worked and hardly communicates with outsiders.
Perelman graduated high school No. 239 s in-depth study mathematics. In 1982, as part of a team of schoolchildren, he participated in the International Mathematical Olympiad in Budapest. In the same year he was enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad state university no exams. Won at faculty, city and all-Union student competitions mathematical olympiads. Received a Lenin scholarship, graduated from the university with honors... Read more
Alferov Zhores Ivanovich
Academician Zh.I. Alferov is the largest Soviet Russian scientist, author of more than 500 scientific works, over 50 inventions.
His works received global recognition, included in textbooks. Works of Zh.I. Alferov were awarded the Nobel Prize, Lenin and State Prizes of the USSR and Russia, the Prize named after. A.P. Karpinsky (Germany), Demidov Prize, Prize named after. A.F. Ioffe and the gold medal of A.S. Popov (RAS), the Hewlett-Packard Prize of the European Physical Society, the Stuart Ballantyne Medal of the Franklin Institute (USA), the Kyoto Prize (Japan), many orders and medals of the USSR, Russia and foreign countries.
To the number scientific directions, which are actively developed by Zh.I. Alferov, refers to the development of lasers based on quantum dots. The use of arrays of such quantum dots makes it possible to reduce the power consumption of lasers, as well as increase the stability of their characteristics with increasing temperature. The world's first quantum dot laser was created by a group of scientists working under the leadership of Zh.I. Alferova. The characteristics of these devices are constantly improving, and today they are in many respects... Read more
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein - German physicist, creator general theory relativity. He suggested that all bodies do not attract each other, as was believed since the time of Newton, but bend the surrounding space and time.
Born in Germany, from 1893 he lived in Switzerland, from 1914 in Germany, and in 1933 emigrated to the USA. Created the partial (1905) and general (1907-16) theories of relativity. Author of seminal works on quantum theory light: introduced the concept of the photon (1905), established the laws of the photoelectric effect, the basic law of photochemistry (Einstein’s law), predicted (1917) stimulated emission. Albert Einstein developed statistical theory Brownian motion, laying the foundations of the theory of fluctuations, created quantum statistics of Bose - Einstein. Since 1933 he worked on problems of cosmology and unified theory fields. In the 30s opposed fascism, war, in the 40s - against the use nuclear weapons. In 1940, he signed a letter to the US President about the danger of creating nuclear weapons in Germany, which stimulated American nuclear research. One of the initiators of the creation of the State of Israel. Nobel Prize (1921, for works in theoretical physics, especially for the discovery of the laws of the photoelectric effect).
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in ancient German city Ulm, in Germany, but a year later the family moved to Munich, where Albert's father, Hermann Einstein, and uncle Jacob organized a small company, the Electrical Factory of J. Einstein and Co. At the beginning, the business of the company, which was engaged in the improvement of arc devices... Read more
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867) - English physicist and chemist, founder of the doctrine of the electromagnetic field. I've done so much in my life scientific discoveries that they would be enough for a dozen scientists to immortalize their name.
English physicist Michael Faraday was born on the outskirts of London in the family of a blacksmith. After graduating primary school, from the age of twelve he worked as a newspaper delivery boy, and in 1804 he became an apprentice to the bookbinder Ribot, a French emigrant who in every possible way encouraged Faraday’s passionate desire for self-education. Reading and visiting public lectures young Faraday sought to expand his knowledge, and he was attracted mainly by the natural sciences - chemistry and physics. In 1813, one of the customers gave Faraday invitation cards to Humphry Davy's lectures at the Royal Institution, which played decisive role in the fate of a young man. Having addressed a letter to Davy, Faraday, with his help, received a position as a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution.
In 1813–1815, while traveling with Davy through Europe, Faraday visited laboratories in France and Italy. After returning to England scientific activity Faraday proceeded within the walls of the Royal Institution, where he first helped Davy in chemical experiments and then started independent research. Faraday liquefied chlorine and some other gases and obtained benzene. In 1821, he first observed the rotation of a magnet around a conductor with current and a conductor with current around a magnet, and created the first model of an electric motor. Over the next 10 years, Faraday studied the connection between electrical and magnetic phenomena... Read completely
Marie Curie-Skłodowska
Marie Curie-Skłodowska (1867 - 1934) - physicist and chemist Polish origin. Together with her husband, she discovered the elements radium and polonium. She worked on problems of radioactivity.
Maria Skłodowska was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, into a family of teachers. Young Maria studied brilliantly at school and even then began to show great interest in scientific research. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev himself (who knew Maria’s father) once saw the girl at work in her chemical laboratory cousin, predicted a great future for her if she continued to study chemistry.
But on the way to realizing her dream, Maria encountered two obstacles at once - not only the poverty of her family, but also the ban on women being students at the University of Warsaw. But this could not stop the purposeful girl. The following plan was developed and carried out - Maria worked as a governess for five years in her homeland, Poland, to enable her sister to graduate medical school, after which she, in turn, took on the costs of Mary’s higher education.
Having become a doctor, Maria's sister invited her to Paris and in 1891 Maria entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Paris (Sorbonne). In 1893, having completed the course first, Marie (as she began to call herself) received a degree... Read more
Max Planck
Max Planck (1858-1947) - German physicist, creator of quantum theory, which made a genuine revolution in physics. Classical physics as opposed to modern physics now means physics before Planck.
Born April 23, 1858 in Kiel. He studied at the Universities of Munich and Berlin, at the latter he attended a course of lectures by physicists Helmholtz and Kirchhoff and mathematician Weierstrass. At the same time, he carefully studied the works on thermodynamics of Clausius, which largely determined the direction of Planck’s research in these years. In 1879 he became a Doctor of Philosophy, submitting a dissertation on the second law of mechanical heat for defense. In his dissertation work, he considered the issue of the irreversibility of the heat conduction process and gave the first general formulation of the law of increasing entropy. A year after defense, I received the right to teach theoretical physics and taught this course at the University of Munich for five years. In 1885 he became professor of theoretical physics at Kiel University. His most significant publication during this period was the book The Principle of Conservation of Energy, which received a prize at the competition of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Göttingen. In 1889 Planck was invited to Berlin University to the post of extraordinary professor, three years later he was appointed full professor. In the first years of his stay in Berlin, he studied the theory of heat, electro- and thermochemistry, equilibrium in gases and dilute solutions.
In 1896 Planck began his classical research in the field thermal radiation. Having taken up the solution of the problem of energy distribution in the radiation spectrum of an absolutely black body, in 1900 he derived a semi-empirical formula, which, when high temperatures and long wavelengths satisfactorily described the experimental data of Kurlbaum and Rubens... Read more
Paul Dirac
Paul Dirac - English physicist, discovered statistical distribution energy in a system of electrons. Received Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of new productive forms atomic theory.
Paul Dirac was born on August 8, 1902, in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England.
Charles Adrien Ladislas Dirac, the father of the future great physicist, emigrated from Switzerland to England, and by 1902 he and his wife Florence and three children (Paul had an older brother and a younger sister) lived in Bristol in his own home. In 1919, the father and all family members became British subjects.
Paul's father made money by teaching French. The students did not like him - he was too strict and demanding - although they could not help but understand the effectiveness of his pedagogical techniques. We lived in isolation. Subsequently, Paul Dirac recalled: “No one came to our house, with the exception, perhaps, of a few of my father’s students. We did not have any guests.” The father demanded that French (his native) language be spoken in the house, contrary to the wishes of his wife and children, and this was one of the reasons that made communication difficult. This is perhaps where Paul's silence and his attraction to loneliness originate.
Paul was sent to study at the school where his father taught. It was a somewhat old-fashioned, but also very respectable educational institution, of which Dirac recalled that it was “... a magnificent school of natural sciences and modern languages. There was no Latin or Greek in it, which I was very glad about, because I did not perceive ancient cultures at all. I was very happy that I could attend this school. I studied from 1914 to 1918, just during the First World War. Many boys left school to serve the nation. As a result, the upper classes were completely empty. To fill the gap... Read more
Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford - English physicist, unraveled the nature of induced radioactivity, discovered the emanation of thorium, radioactive decay and its law. Rutherford is often rightly called one of the titans of 20th century physics.
Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 in Brightwater, a picturesque place in New Zealand. He was the fourth child in the family of Scottish immigrants James Rutherford and Martha Thomson, and of the twelve children he turned out to be the most gifted. Ernest completed primary school brilliantly, receiving 580 points out of a possible 600 and a £50 bonus to continue his education.
At Nelson College, where Ernest Rutherford was accepted into the fifth form, teachers noticed his exceptional math skills. But Ernest did not become a mathematician. He did not become a humanitarian, although he showed remarkable abilities in languages and literature. Fate would have decreed that Ernest would become carried away natural sciences- physics and chemistry.
After graduating from college, Rutherford entered the University of Canterbury, and already in his second year he gave a report on “The Evolution of the Elements,” in which he suggested that chemical elements represent complex systems, consisting of the same elementary particles. Ernest's student report was not properly assessed at the university, but his experimental work, for example, creating a receiver electromagnetic waves, surprised even major scientists. Just a few months later he was awarded the "1851 scholarship", which recognized the most talented graduates of provincial English... Read more
Great scientists in the field of physics and mathematics
Ministry of Education of the Republic of Bashkortostan
Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 1 s. Askino
Abstract on the topic:
Great scientists.
Completed by: student of class 10A
Ziyazov Almaz
Supervisor : Khakimova F.M.
Askino - 2007
PLAN
- Amedeo Avogadro
- Niels Bohr
- Andre Marie Ampere
- Daniel Bernoulli
- Ludwig Boltzmann
- Alexander Volt
- Galileo Galilei
- Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
- Robert Hooke
- Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky
- Charles Augustin Pendant
- Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov
- Lev Davidovich Landau
- Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev
- Emily Khristianovich Lenz
- Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov
- James Clerk Maxwell
- Isaac Newton
- Georg Simon Ohm
- Blaise Pascal
- Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck
- Ernest Rutherford
- Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
- Alexander Grigorievich Stoletov
- Michael Faraday
- Benjamin Franklin
- Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky
- Albert Einstein
- Hans Christian Oersted
Talent is the ability to find your own destiny.
Thomas Mann. What were they like, looking at us now from portraits?
· Minions of fate?
· Fighters in the name of science?
· Scientists "crackers"? All knowledgeable and understanding sages?
· Did you make your discoveries despite or thanks to circumstances?
· They showed their aptitude for science back in early childhood, didn’t think of yourself as anything other than a physicist?
· In childhood they did not show any hope; rather, on the contrary, they were closed, uncommunicative, living in their own own world?
· Questions related to physics began to be dealt with far from early years?
· They devoted only a few years of their life to physics; it was not their main occupation?
· The selection offered below can serve as material for conferences, extracurricular activities, and can be used incidentally, appropriately at regular lesson, if the teacher feels that what is said will be important for one of his students.
Amedeo AVOGADRO (1776-1856)
His full name is Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avoga-ro di Quaregna e di Cerreto. The third of eight children of a judicial employee, whose ancestors date back to the 12th century. were in the service catholic church. The position was inherited. At the age of twenty, Amedeo received the degree of Doctor of Church Law. The twenty-five-year-old lawyer began to devote all his free time to physical and mathematical sciences.
Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
From the family of a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen. Among the parents' friends were musicians, writers, and artists. It was open house, where Nils and his brother Harold (a year younger) tried to develop self-confidence, instill respect for knowledge, work, and other people. At school, Nils was considered a capable student, at the university - a capable student. Participated in a circle to discuss scientific and philosophical problems, was fond of football. The brothers were even members of the Danish national team and became famous throughout the country before gaining scientific fame. When Niels Bohr became Nobel laureate, Danish sports newspapers came out with headlines: “Our goalkeeper was given the Nobel Prize.”
Andre Marie AMPERE (1775-1836)
There was, as they say, late child in the family of a Lyon silk merchant. Exceptional abilities were demonstrated in early age. He quickly learned to read and do arithmetic. I read everything (my father had a good library). One day he was found reading an encyclopedia.
What are you reading, Andre? - asked the father.
“I’m reading an article about aberration,” answered the eleven-year-old child. And he outlined the essence of this complex phenomenon.
I never went to school and never completed a classical course of study. He studied Latin himself, because that was the only way he could read the things that interested him. “Do you know how roots are calculated?” - asked the visiting mathematics teacher. “No, but I know how to integrate!” - the boy answered. Ampere's heyday as a scientist was in 1814-1824, i.e. by the age of forty.
Daniel BERNOULLI (1700-1782)
At the age of sixteen he received a master's degree in philosophy. Around the same time, he began to study mathematics under the guidance of his older brother (Daniil is a representative famous dynasty Bernoulli scientists). At twenty-one he was awarded the degree of licentiate in medicine. He began to study hydrodynamics, which brought him fame, when he was closer to forty years old.
Ludwig BOLZMANN (1844-1906)
Born in Vienna. Father is an official of the Imperial Ministry of Finance. From childhood I was interested in mathematics and natural science. At the gymnasium he was considered capable and hardworking. I enjoyed playing music. His favorite composer was Beethoven, his favorite poet was Schiller. At nineteen he entered University of Vienna. From that moment on, his active scientific and teaching activities began.
Alexander Volt (1745-1827)
He was born on a family estate where his ancestors lived for many centuries. The parents believed that the child was developing abnormally: short in stature and unable to speak. He was considered mute until he uttered his first word at the age of four: “No!” He studied at the school of the Jesuit Order. As an eighteen-year-old boy, he was already rapidly corresponding with the most prominent electrical physicist of that time, the Reverend Abbot Nolle. Volta's heyday as a scientist was between the ages of forty-five and fifty.
Galileo GALILEO (1564-1642)
His father wanted the boy to become a doctor, so he sent him to study at the University of Pisa. However, seventeen-year-old Galileo did not particularly like medicine. He left the university and began to study mathematics and mechanics seriously. At twenty-two, he wrote serious scientific works, for example, about the center of gravity of bodies. At twenty-five years old he is a teacher at the University of Pisa. The position of professor of mathematics was honorary, but poorly paid.
Heinrich Rudolf HERZ (1857-1894)
I studied well at the gymnasium. He adored all subjects without exception - in equally physics and Arabic. He loved to write poetry and turn figures on a lathe. They say that when Hertz became a famous scientist, his turning mentor remarked with regret: “It’s a pity. He would make an excellent turner." Whatever he undertook, everything worked out. Heinrich Hertz was the son of a senator. When he was born, the doctors unanimously stated that he was not long for this world. Illnesses haunted him all thirty years of his life.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
Born into the family of a church rector on the Isle of Wight (England). The father wanted his son to also become a priest. But the boy's health was so poor that he could not even go to primary school with his peers. He devoted his leisure time to designing various mechanisms. Such a serene life was cut short at the age of thirteen - her father died. Hooke became an apprentice to a London painter. Soon I decided that without special training draws quite well, but the smell of paint made him headache. He left painting and went to school to prepare for university. Studied Greek, Latin, Euclid geometry. At eighteen, he is a student at Oxford University. He made his living as a chorister in a church and as an assistant to a chemist, who recommended him to a young aristocrat passionate about science, Robert Boyle.
Unfortunately, there is no portrait of Hooke, not only at an early age, but not a single one at all: in a fit of jealousy, I. Newton, after Hooke’s death, ordered the destruction of all his portraits (he considered Hooke his rival in science). The above portrait is a reconstruction of the scientist’s appearance based on descriptions of his contemporaries.
Nikolai Egorovich ZHUKOVSKY (1847-1921)
At the age of eleven he was sent from his parents’ Vladimir estate to study at the 4th Moscow gymnasium. Starting from the 3rd grade, he stood out as the best student in algebra, geometry and natural sciences. Foreign languages were difficult for him, especially Latin and German. I loved experiments in physics. He made various models and devices. After graduating from high school, he planned to enter the St. Petersburg Institute of Railway Engineers, following in his father’s footsteps. Studying there was expensive - the family could not afford such expenses. My father advised me to enter Moscow University, the Faculty of Mathematics. It was very difficult for sixteen-year-old Nikolai. From a letter to his mother at that time: “... And it’s time to think, and seriously, about myself, I’m no longer a child. When graduating from university, there is no other goal than to become a great man, and this is so difficult: there are so many candidates for the name of the great...” Zhukovsky’s dream of becoming an engineer came true in mature age.
Charles Augustin PENDANT (1736-1806)
He entered military service immediately after graduating from school. Passed engineering training. He built defensive structures on the island of Martinique. At the same time with military service conducted scientific research. His name became famous in scientific world by the age of forty.
Igor Vasilievich KURCHATOV (1903-1960)
His youth came during the years of revolution and civil war. He studied at the gymnasium of the city of Simferopol. He played the mandolin in the orchestra. The family was of more than average income. While studying, he worked part-time in a mouthpiece workshop and mastered plumbing. The mathematics teacher at the gymnasium prophesied a great future for him, and so did the literature teacher. Entered Taurida University, graduating from high school with a gold medal. True, they could not give him a medal: there was a war going on. A student, a seventeen- to eighteen-year-old youth, he worked wherever he could to survive in these hungry years: on the construction of a railway line, as a watchman, even as a teacher.
Lev Davidovich LANDAU (1908-1968)
He became a high school student at the age of eight, entered the Baku Economic College at twelve, and graduated two years later. At the age of fourteen, he was a student at Baku University. Many modern schoolchildren at this age are just beginning to get acquainted with physics.
He learned to differentiate at the age of twelve, to integrate at the age of thirteen, he spoke German and French quite fluently, and by the age of twenty he had learned English. He loved to read, but hated writing essays. There were always problems with the literature teacher. Once I received a one for an essay about Eugene Onegin and wrote without a single mistake: “Tatiana was a rather boring person.”
Pyotr Nikolaevich LEBEDEV (1866-1912)
Born in Moscow, in the family of an employee of a tea trading company. His father decided to send him to a commercial school, saying: “I would rather see my son as a practical man in China than as a scoundrel in Moscow.” The son reads popular scientific and technical literature, helps the physics teacher with demonstrations of experiments, and persuades his father (a wealthy man) to purchase some electrical appliances. He installs an electric bell in the apartment himself. Back then it was considered a miracle of technology! The father's hopes of making his son his worthy business heir were crumbling. The fourteen-year-old boy was allowed to enter a real school, and then the Moscow Technical School (now the Bauman Technical University). Lebedev was always an average student. Experiments and various inventions at home took a lot of time and effort. His father encouraged romantic interests in girls and bought him a boat and a racehorse. But the desire to become an engineer was overwhelming. At the age of seventeen, he writes: “I will not fall in love, otherwise everything will go to waste and I will have to go to the office” (i.e. become a business person).
Emilius Christianovich LENZ (1804-1865)
Russian physicist from the city of Dorpat (Tartu). Then it was Russian empire. Dropped out of university to go on a three-year trip around the world. Conducted geographical research. According to their results, at the age of twenty-four he became an adjunct of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and at the age of twenty-six - an academician. Engaged in reorganization physical laboratory and their own physical research.
Mikhail Vasilievich LOMONOSOV (1711-1765)
Born near the town of Kholmogory, in peasant family. Almost all local residents were engaged in marine fishing. From the age of ten, Mikhail began to take part in voyages with his father. He learned to read at the age of twelve from a local sexton. He read all the books available to him. The thirst for knowledge turned out to be so strong that already as an adult, nineteen years old (and he had been working since he was ten!), he went to Moscow to study. The twenty-year-old “uncle” was sitting at a desk with schoolchildren, students of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. He lived in dire need: “Having an altyn per day of salary, it was impossible to have more for food per day than a coin for bread and a coin for kvass, etc. for paper, for shoes and other needs.” Training at the academy was designed for 13 years. In the first year, Lomonosov managed to complete three classes, and in 5 years - the entire course.
James Clerk MAXWELL (1831-1879)
His childhood was happy. The three-year-old child explored everything around him. How can the ringing of a bell to call the servants be transmitted through a wire to other rooms? Riddle! He had extremely kind, wise and attentive parents. In one of the letters, the boy’s mother writes that the words: “Show me how it’s done,” constantly accompany him. His mother died when James was eight years old. At first he did not show much success at school. He was only interested in the geometry of oval lines using two needles and thread. The method was reported at a meeting of the Royal Scientific Society and approved by the most famous scientists. At sixteen he entered the University of Edinburgh, and at nineteen he moved to Cambridge.
Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
He was born small and frail, but lived eighty-five years without being sick any more than usual. He was considered a capable child and had an excellent memory. Loved tinkering. For example, he made a mill, the wheel of which was driven by a mouse; lanterns, sun and water clocks. kites, which lit up in the air, scared the neighbors. I read a lot. His family wanted him to become a farmer, perhaps a priest. But, from childhood, an unsociable, touchy young man who loved solitude decided to take up science seriously. At the age of eighteen he was a student at Cambridge, and at the age of twenty-two (unusually early!) he received a bachelor's degree. He did his most significant works at a relatively young age. Never left England, never traveled further than 200 km from Cambridge.
Georg Simon OM (1787-1854)
Born into a family of a mechanic. The father attached great importance to the education of children. Although the family was constantly in need, Georg studied - first at the gymnasium, and then at the university. However, at the behest of his father, who believed that his son paid too much attention to entertainment, Om had to interrupt his studies and begin teaching mathematics in one of the private schools in Switzerland. Only at the age of twenty-four did he manage to pass the university exams. Georg Ohm became interested in physics later.
Blaise PASCAL (1623-1662)
The father developed a system of raising children (there were two more daughters in the family besides Blaise), which excluded the exact sciences. He was afraid that his early enthusiasm for mathematics and natural sciences would interfere with his harmonious development. For example, the boy learned about “forbidden” geometry at the age of twelve. Physics became his area of interest by the age of thirty.
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig PLANCK (1858-1947)
Born into the family of a civil law professor. The boy studied at the Munich Gymnasium and intended to become a musician or linguist. Subsequently, he played a duet (piano part) with Einstein, who performed the violin part. Physics attracted his attention in high school.
One of the teachers University of Munich dissuaded Planck from connecting his interests specifically with theoretical physics. There, they say, everything is already known, all that remains is to clarify the details.
Ernest RUTHERFORD (1871-1937)
The fourth child of a New Zealand small farmer who had eight other children. The father was not able to educate all his children, and Rutherford, starting with childhood and before receiving higher education, I studied all the time on a scholarship. Lively, active, cheerful, he loved hunting and sports. At school and university he played as a forward on the football team. Loved to read. As a boy, he made his own camera, which was quite difficult in those days.
In 1891, as a twenty-year-old student, at a meeting of the Scientific Society he made a report “On the Evolution of Matter,” where he expressed completely revolutionary thoughts: all atoms consist of the same particles. The report was met with very disapproval. He had to apologize to Scientific Society.
Wilhelm Conrad RENTGEN (1845-1923)
The scientist who received the first Nobel Prize did not have a school certificate. He was expelled from school. Someone drew a caricature of the teacher on the board, and he believed that it was the work of Roentgen. He did not receive a certificate and when he tried to pass the exams as an external student, his examiner turned out to be the same teacher. It was now impossible to even dream of entering a higher educational institution. By chance, a twenty-year-old young man learns that a new Polytechnical Institute, where volunteer students are accepted (i.e. a certificate is not required). It was there that he entered the mechanical engineering faculty.
Alexander Grigorievich Stoletov (1839-1896)
Born into the family of a poor Vladimir merchant - the owner of a grocery store. Learned to read at the age of four. From the age of five reading - favorite hobby. He wrote poetry and published a handwritten journal with his friends at the gymnasium. He studied music, and at one time even wanted to become a professional musician. IN last years While studying at the gymnasium, physics and mathematics became my favorite subjects. They determined future fate. The seventeen-year-old boy became a student at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University (at government expense, i.e., upon graduation, he had to work for six years “in the educational department of the Ministry of Public Education”).
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Born in London, in the family of a blacksmith. Received only primary education. At the age of twelve he began working as a newspaper delivery boy and as an apprentice in a bookbinding shop. Self-taught, read a lot.
Benjamin FRANKLIN (1706-1790)
Political figure. In America, to this day he is one of the most revered people in US history. His work on electricity was done over a short period of time, from 1747 to 1753. That is, he devoted seven years to physics, already in adulthood. Thanks to him, we now use a lightning rod and the concepts of “positive” and “negative” charges. Anyone can see Franklin's portrait on the $100 bill.
Konstantin Eduardovich TSIOLKOVSKY (1857-1935)
Born into the family of a forester. Besides him there are twelve more children. At the age of nine he fell ill with scarlet fever and, as a result of complications, partially lost his hearing. This affected his entire later life. He found himself isolated from the rest of the children, he was teased, he could not study at school (he could not hear the teacher). Two years later, the mother dies. From now on, his world is books. From the age of fourteen or fifteen I became interested in physics, mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy. At the age of sixteen he left for Moscow, where he lived for three years, spending the very little money he received from home, mainly on books. Then, returning home, he earned money by tutoring. At the age of twenty-two, he passed the exams for the title of teacher as an external student. The brilliant, self-taught scientist, who was far ahead of his time, later recalled that deafness always made his pride suffer, alienated him from people, left him alone with his thoughts.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
As a child, he learned to speak so slowly that he was almost considered mentally retarded. Still, his mother made ambitious plans for his future. She was neither gentle nor tolerant, and Einstein's childhood was marked by her domineering nature. He himself recalled that he was a lonely and dreamy child, had difficulty communicating with peers, and avoided noisy games. Loved to build complex designs made of cubes and houses of cards up to fourteen floors high. He was subject to fits of rage, but in his normal state he was almost inhibited. His apathy worried his parents. He started learning to play the violin at the age of five. Music became his spiritual need throughout his life. At school I encountered anti-Semitism. At the age of eleven he experienced a period of ardent religious faith, which gave way to a period of passion for scientific and technical literature. Although I learned it quite slowly in childhood new information, especially serious problems he didn't have one at school. Weak point There was only physical education. His Greek teacher made history by saying that Einstein would never amount to anything.
He really did not become a specialist in ancient languages. All my life I hated militarism. He renounced his German citizenship to avoid being drafted into the army at the age of seventeen.
According to my own recollections, at the age of sixteen I began to wonder how it was possible (and whether it was even possible) to catch up with a ray of light moving across the sky.
Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851)
Born into the family of a poor pharmacist. There wasn’t much money for education, so together with my brother Anders I studied wherever I could: at the hairdresser - German language, the hairdresser's wife - Danish, the pastor - grammar, history and literature, the land surveyor - mathematics. A visiting student once spoke about the properties of minerals. At the age of twelve he was already standing behind the counter of his father’s pharmacy. Nevertheless, once at the University of Copenhagen, he began to study everything at once: medicine, physics, astronomy, philosophy, poetry. Got twenty years old gold medal for the essay “The Boundaries of Poetry and Prose.” Oersted came to physics later.
Literature
1. Azernikov V.Z. Physics. Great discoveries. - M.: OLMA-press, 2000.
2. Golin G.M., Filonovich SR. Classics physical science. - M.: graduate School, 1989.
3. Wonderful scientists. - Library "Quantum". 1980.
4. Lishevsky V.P. Hunters for truth. - M.: Nauka, 1990.
5. They created physics. - M.; Bureau "Quantum", 1998.
6. Khramov Yu.A. Physicists. -M.: Nauka, 1983.