Experimental physics

Within the field of physics, experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines concerned with the observation of physical phenomena in order to gather data about the universe. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and observations, such as the Cavendish experiment, to more complicated ones, such as those going on at the LHC.

Overview

Experimental physics regroup all the disciplines of physics that are concerned with data-acquisition, data-acquisition methods, and the detailed conceptualization (beyond simple thought experiments) and realization of laboratory experiments . It is often put in contrast with theoretical physics, which is more concerned with predicting and explaining the physical behaviour of nature than the acquisition of knowledge about it.

Although experimental and theoretical physics are concerned with different aspects of nature, they both share the same goal of understanding it and have a symbiotic relation. The former provides data about the universe, which can then be analyzed in order to be understood, while the latter provides explanations for the data and thus offers insight on how to better acquire data and on how to built experiment. Theoretical physics can also offer insight on what data is needed in order to gain a better understanding of the universe, and on what experiments to build in order to obtain it.

History

Experimental physics had its roots in the Middle Ages, particularly in Iraq and Egypt,citation|first=Rüdiger|last=Thiele|year=2005|title=In Memoriam: Matthias Schramm, 1928–2005|journal=Historia Mathematica|volume=32|issue=3|date=August 2005|pages=271–274|doi=10.1016/j.hm.2005.05.002] in the work of the Muslim physicist, Ibn al-Haytham (965-1039), [citation|first=Rüdiger|last=Thiele|year=2005|title=In Memoriam: Matthias Schramm|journal=Arabic Sciences and Philosophy|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=15|pages=329–331|doi=10.1017/S0957423905000214] known in the West as "Alhazen", who is considered the "father of modern optics"R. L. Verma, "Al-Hazen: father of modern optics", "Al-Arabi", 8 (1969): 12-13] and one of the most important physicists of the Middle Ages,George Sarton, "Introduction to the History of Science", "The Time of Al-Biruni": quote| [Ibn al-Haytham] was not only the greatest Muslim physicist, but by all means the greatest of mediaeval times. quote|Ibn Haytham's writings reveal his fine development of the experimental faculty. His tables of corresponding angles of incidence and refraction of light passing from one medium to another show how closely he had approached discovering the law of constancy of ratio of sines, later attributed to Snell. He accounted correctly for twilight as due to atmospheric refraction, estimating the sun's depression to be 19 degrees below the horizon, at the commencement of the phenomenon in the mornings or at its termination in the evenings.] for having developed the earliest experimental scientific method in his "Book of Optics" (1021).Rosanna Gorini (2003). "Al-Haytham the Man of Experience. First Steps in the Science of Vision", "International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine". Institute of Neurosciences, Laboratory of Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology, Rome, Italy.] Some of his most famous experiments include his development and use of the camera obscura and pinhole camera to prove that light travels in straight lines. Matthias Schramm wrote in his "Ibn al-Haythams Weg zur Physik":

Another medieval Muslim physicist who contributed towards experimental physics was Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973-1048), who developed the earliest experimental method for mechanics. Al-Biruni and Al-Khazini (fl. 1115-1130) also unified statics and dynamics into the science of mechanics, and combined hydrostatics with dynamics to create the field of hydrodynamics.Mariam Rozhanskaya and I. S. Levinova (1996), "Statics", p. 642, in Harv|Morelon|Rashed|1996|pp=614-642: quote|"Using a whole body of mathematical methods (not only those inherited from the antique theory of ratios and infinitesimal techniques, but also the methods of the contemporary algebra and fine calculation techniques), Arabic scientists raised statics to a new, higher level. The classical results of Archimedes in the theory of the centre of gravity were generalized and applied to three-dimensional bodies, the theory of ponderable lever was founded and the 'science of gravity' was created and later further developed in medieval Europe. The phenomena of statics were studied by using the dynamic apporach so that two trends - statics and dynamics - turned out to be inter-related withina single science, mechanics. The combination of the dynamic apporach with Archimedean hydrostatics gave birth to a direction in science which may be called medieval hydrodynamics. [...] Numerous fine experimental methods were developed for determining the specific weight, which were based, in particular, on the theory of balances and weighing. The classical works of al-Biruni and al-Khazini can by right be considered as the beginning of the application of experimental methods in medieval science."]

After the Latin translations of the 12th century, when the "Book of Optics" became available in Latin, the scientific method was adopted and further developed by Robert Grosseteste, who emphasized mathematics as a way to understand nature, and by Roger Bacon who emphasized an empirical approach. Bacon conducted further experiments into optics, improving on the work of his predecessor, Alhazen. Bacon also recorded the manner in which he conducted his experiments in precise detail so that others could reproduce and independently test his results, a cornerstone of the scientific method, and a continuation of the work of researchers like Alhazen and Albatenius.

As a distinct field, experimental physics was established in early modern Europe, during what is known as the Scientific Revolution, by physicists such as Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, Johannes Kepler, Blaise Pascal and Sir Isaac Newton. In the early 17th century, Galileo made extensive use of experimentation to validate physical theories, which is the key idea in the modern scientific method. Galileo formulated and successfully tested several results in dynamics, in particular the law of inertia, which later became the first law in Newton's laws of motion. In Galileo's "Two New Sciences", a dialogue between the characters Simplicio and Salviati discuss the motion of a ship (as a moving frame) and how that ship's cargo is indifferent to its motion. Huygens used the motion of a boat along a Dutch canal to illustrate an early form of the conservation of momentum.

Experimental physics is considered to have culminated with the publication of the "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" in 1687 by Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727). In 1687, Newton published the "Principia", detailing two comprehensive and successful physical theories: Newton's laws of motion, from which arise classical mechanics; and Newton's law of universal gravitation, which describes the fundamental force of gravity. Both theories agreed well with experiment. The "Principia" also included several theories in fluid dynamics.

From the late 17th century onward, thermodynamics was developed by physicist and chemist Boyle, Young, and many others. In 1733, Bernoulli used statistical arguments with classical mechanics to derive thermodynamic results, initiating the field of statistical mechanics. In 1798, Thompson demonstrated the conversion of mechanical work into heat, and in 1847 Joule stated the law of conservation of energy, in the form of heat as well as mechanical energy. Ludwig Boltzmann, in the nineteenth century, is responsible for the modern form of statistical mechanics. Classical mechanics was re-formulated and extended by Leonhard Euler, French mathematician Joseph-Louis Comte de Lagrange, Irish mathematical physicist William Rowan Hamilton, and others, who produced new results in mathematical physics. The law of universal gravitation initiated the field of astrophysics, which describes astronomical phenomena using physical theories. Newton's Law of gravitation also helped put celestial mechanics on proper scientific and mathematical footing.

After Newton defined classical mechanics, the next great field of inquiry within physics was the nature of electricity. Observations in the seventeenth and eighteenth century by scientists such as Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray, and Benjamin Franklin created a foundation for later work. These observations also established our basic understanding of electrical charge and current. By 1808 John Dalton had discovered that atoms of different elements have different weights and proposed the modern theory of the atom.

It was Hans Christian Ørsted who first proposed the connection between electricity and magnetism after observing the deflection of a compass needle by a nearby electric current. By the early 1830s Michael Faraday had demonstrated that magnetic fields and electricity could generate each other. In 1864 James Clerk Maxwell presented to the Royal Society a set of equations that described this relationship between electricity and magnetism. Maxwell's equations also predicted correctly that light is an electromagnetic wave. Starting with astronomy, the principles of natural philosophy crystallized into fundamental laws of physics which were enunciated and improved in the succeeding centuries. By the 19th century, the sciences had segmented into multiple fields with specialized researchers and the field of physics, although logically pre-eminent, no longer could claim sole ownership of the entire field of scientific research.

Current experiments

Some examples of prominent experimental physics projects are:

* Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider which collides heavy ions such as gold ions (it is the first heavy ion collider) and protons, it is located at Brookhaven National Laboratory, on Long Island, USA.

* HERA, which collides electrons or positrons and protons, and is part of DESY, located in Hamburg, Germany.

* LHC, or the Large Hadron Collider, which is currently under construction. The LHC will is scheduled to begin operation in 2008 and will be the world's most energetic collider upon completion, it is located at CERN, on the French-Swiss border near Geneva.

* JWST, or the James Webb Space Telescope, is planned for launch in 2013. It will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It will survey the sky in the infrared region. The main goals of the JWST will be in order to understand the initial stages of the universe, galaxy formation as well as the formations of stars and planets, and the origins of life.

Method

Experimental physics uses two main methods of experimental research, controlled experiments, and natural experiments. Controlled experiments are often used in laboratories as laboratories can offer a controlled environment. Natural experiments are used, for example, in astrophysics when observing celestial objects where control of the variables in effect is impossible.

Famous experiments

Famous "experiments" include:

* 2-degree-Field Galaxy Redshift Survey
* 2-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS)
* Bell test experiments
* BOOMERanG experiment
* Camera obscura experiments
* Cavendish experiment
* Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
* Davisson-Germer experiment
* Double slit experiment
* Foucault pendulum
* Frank Hertz experiment
* Gravity Probe A
* Gravity Probe B
* Homestake experiment
* Oil-drop experiment
* Michelson-Morley experiment
* Neutrino experiment
* Rutherford experiment
* Sloan Digital Sky Survey
* Stern-Gerlach experiment
* Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

Experimental techniques

Some well-known experimental techniques include:

* Crystallography
* Ellipsometry
* Faraday cage
* Interferometry
* Raman spectroscopy
* Signal processing
* Spectroscopy
* X-ray spectroscopy

Prominent experimental physicists

Famous "experimental physicists" include:

* Alhacen (965–1039)
* John Bardeen (1908–1991)
* Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852–1908)
* Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1043)
* Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858–1937)
* William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971)
* Marie Curie (1867–1934)
* Michael Faraday (1791–1867)
* Enrico Fermi (1901–1954)
* Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)
* Al-Khazini (fl. 1115-1130)
* Max von Laue (1879–1960)
* Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901–1958)
* Ernst Mach (1838–1916)
* Albert Abraham Michelson (1852–1931)
* Robert Andrews Millikan (1868–1953)
* Isaac Newton (1643–1727)
* Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888–1970)
* John William Strutt (3rd Baron Rayleigh) (1842–1919)
* Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845–1923)
* Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937)
* William Bradford Shockley (1910–1989)
* Joseph John Thomson (1856–1940)
* Ukichiro Nakaya (1900 - 1962）

Timelines

See the timelines below for listings of physics experiments.
* Timeline of classical mechanics
* Timeline of electromagnetism and classical optics
* Timeline of gravitational physics and relativity
* Timeline of nuclear fusion
* Timeline of other background radiation fields
* Timeline of particle physics technology
* Timeline of quantum mechanics, molecular physics, atomic physics, nuclear physics, and particle physics
* Timeline of states of matter and phase transitions
* Timeline of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and random processes
* Timeline of particle discoveries

References

ee also

* Physics
* Engineering
* Experimental science