Quantum, Relativity & Forces Explained | Pixelated Physics

20 articles

Pixel-art torsion balance in a glass bulb with bright and blackened discs on a hanging wing, a yellow beam of light from the left and a green arrow showing the push, captioned light pushes

Lebedev 1900: How the Pressure of Light Was Fir...

In 1900 Pyotr Lebedev showed that light pushes on a mirror, exactly as Maxwell predicted. Here is how big that push is, why it was so hard to measure, how...

Lebedev 1900: How the Pressure of Light Was Fir...

In 1900 Pyotr Lebedev showed that light pushes on a mirror, exactly as Maxwell predicted. Here is how big that push is, why it was so hard to measure, how...

Pixel-art Kater's reversible pendulum: a brass bar with two facing cyan knife edges, a lime bob and a violet sliding weight

Kater's Reversible Pendulum: Measuring Gravity ...

How do you measure gravity with a swinging bar when nobody can say exactly how long the bar is? Henry Kater’s 1817 trick: hang it both ways up and tune...

Kater's Reversible Pendulum: Measuring Gravity ...

How do you measure gravity with a swinging bar when nobody can say exactly how long the bar is? Henry Kater’s 1817 trick: hang it both ways up and tune...

Pixel-art Earth with two airliners carrying atomic clocks on eastward and westward orbits, titled clocks around the world 1971

The Hafele–Keating Experiment: Clocks Around th...

In October 1971 two scientists bought airline seats for four atomic clocks and flew them around the world, once eastward and once westward. When the clocks came home, they no...

The Hafele–Keating Experiment: Clocks Around th...

In October 1971 two scientists bought airline seats for four atomic clocks and flew them around the world, once eastward and once westward. When the clocks came home, they no...

Pixel-art night sky with a cratered Moon on the left and banded Jupiter on the right flanked by four tiny moons, titled Telescope, tea, trouble

Sidereus Nuncius: What Galileo Saw in 1610

In March 1610 Galileo published a short book of telescope observations: a mountainous Moon, a Milky Way made of stars and four moons circling Jupiter. Here is what he saw,...

Sidereus Nuncius: What Galileo Saw in 1610

In March 1610 Galileo published a short book of telescope observations: a mountainous Moon, a Milky Way made of stars and four moons circling Jupiter. Here is what he saw,...

Pixel-art black-body curves in cyan, violet and lime for three temperatures, with the caption E equals h nu

Planck's 1900 Quantum Hypothesis, Step by Step

In late 1900 Max Planck found the formula for black-body radiation and then, to justify it, split energy into chunks of size hν. Here is the sequence of events, the...

Planck's 1900 Quantum Hypothesis, Step by Step

In late 1900 Max Planck found the formula for black-body radiation and then, to justify it, split energy into chunks of size hν. Here is the sequence of events, the...

Pixel-art alpha particle beams hitting a gold foil, most passing straight through, two deflected sideways and one bouncing back, titled Some came back

Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment: How the Nucl...

In 1909 about one alpha particle in 8,000 bounced back off a metal foil. Here is what Geiger and Marsden actually measured, how Rutherford turned it into the nucleus in...

Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment: How the Nucl...

In 1909 about one alpha particle in 8,000 bounced back off a metal foil. Here is what Geiger and Marsden actually measured, how Rutherford turned it into the nucleus in...