Interesting facts about the application of physics in our lives. Interesting facts about physics (15 photos). All objects fall at the same speed

Many people during their school years considered physics a boring subject. But this is not at all true, because in real life everything happens precisely thanks to this science. This natural science can be looked at not only from the perspective of solving problems and creating formulas. Physics also studies the Universe in which man lives, and therefore living without knowing the rules of this Universe becomes uninteresting.

1. As you know from textbooks, water has no shape, but water still has its own shape. This is a ball.

2.Depending on weather conditions, the height of the Eiffel Tower can fluctuate by 12 centimeters. In hot weather, the beams heat up to 40 degrees and expand under the influence of high temperatures, which changes the height of the structure.

3.To feel weak currents, physicist Vasily Petrov had to remove the top layer of epithelium on the tip of his finger.

4.To understand the nature of vision, Isaac Newton inserted a probe into his eye.

5. The common shepherd's whip is considered the first device to break the sound barrier.

6. You can see x-rays and visible glow if you unfold the tape in a vacuum space.

7.Einstein, known to everyone, was a poor student.

8.The body is not a good conductor of current.

9.The most serious branch of physics is considered nuclear.

10. A real nuclear reactor operated 2 billion years ago on the territory of Oklo. The reaction of the reactor continued for approximately 100,000 years and only when the uranium vein was depleted did it end.

11. The temperature on the surface of the Sun is 5 times lower than the temperature of lightning.

12. A drop of rain weighs more than a mosquito.

13. Insects that fly are oriented during the flight only towards the light of the Moon or the Sun.

14.The spectrum is formed when the sun's rays pass through droplets in the air.

15. Fluidity formed due to stress is characteristic of glaciers of large ice.

16. Light propagates more slowly in a transparent medium than in a vacuum.

17. There are no two snowflakes with the same pattern.

18.When ice forms, the crystal lattice begins to lose salt content, which causes ice and salt water to appear at some points in the downdrafts.

19. For his experiments, physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet used people as a material.

20. Without using a corkscrew, you can open a bottle by leaning a newspaper against the wall.

21.To escape from a falling elevator, you need to take a “lying down” position, while occupying the maximum floor area. This will distribute the impact force evenly throughout the body.

22.Air is not directly heated by the Sun.

23. Due to the fact that the Sun emits light in all ranges, it has a white color, although it appears yellow.

24. Sound travels faster where the medium is denser.

25. The noise of Niagara Falls is equivalent to the noise of a factory floor.

26.Water is capable of conducting electricity only with the help of ions that dissolve in it.

27.The maximum density of water is achieved at a temperature of 4 degrees.

28. Almost all oxygen in the atmosphere is of biological origin, but before the emergence of photosynthetic bacteria, the atmosphere was considered oxygen-free.

29.The first engine was a machine called aeolopile, which was created by the Greek scientist Heron of Alexandria.

30. 100 years after Nikola Tesla created the first radio-controlled ship, similar toys appeared on sale.

31.The Nobel Prize was prohibited from being received in Nazi Germany.

32. Short-wave components of the solar spectrum propagate in the air more strongly than long-wave components.

33. At a temperature of 20 degrees, water in the pipeline, which contains methane, can freeze.

34.The only freely occurring substance in the natural environment is water.

35.The Sun has the most water. The water there is in the form of steam.

36. It is not the water molecule itself that conducts the current, but the ions contained in it.

37.Only distilled water is a dielectric.

38.Each bowling ball has the same volume, but their mass is different.

39. In the water space you can observe the process of “sonoluminescence” - the transformation of sound into light.

40.The electron was discovered as a particle by English physicist Joseph John Thompson in 1897.

41.The speed of electric current is equal to the speed of light.

42.By connecting ordinary headphones to the microphone input, they can be used as a microphone.

43. Even with a very strong wind in the mountains, clouds can hang motionless. This occurs due to the fact that the wind moves air masses in a certain flow or wave, but at the same time various obstacles are flown around.

44. There are no blue or green pigments in the shell of the human eye.

45.To be able to look through glass that has a matte surface, you should stick a piece of transparent tape on it.

46.At a temperature of 0 degrees, water in its normal state begins to turn into ice.

47. In the Guinness beer drink, you can notice how the bubbles go down the walls of the glass instead of going up. This occurs because the bubbles in the center of the glass rise faster and push the liquid down at the rim with stronger viscous friction.

48.The phenomenon of an electric arc was first described by the Russian scientist Vasily Petrov in 1802.

49.The Newtonian viscosity of a liquid depends on the nature and temperature. But if the viscosity also depends on the velocity gradient, then it is called non-Newtonian.

50. In a freezer, hot water will freeze faster than cold water.

51. In 8.3 minutes, photons in outer space can reach the Earth.

52. About 3,500 terrestrial planets have been discovered to date.

53.All objects have the same falling speed.

54.If a mosquito is on the ground, then a drop of rain can kill it.

55.All objects that surround a person consist of atoms.

56.Glass is not considered a solid because it is a liquid.

57. Liquid, gaseous and solid bodies always expand when heated.

58.Lightning strikes approximately 6,000 times per minute.

59.If hydrogen burns in the air, water is formed.

60. Light has weight, but has no mass.

61. The moment a person strikes a match against a box, the temperature of the match head rises to 200 degrees.

62. During the process of boiling water, its molecules move at a speed of 650 meters per second.

63. At the tip of the needle in a sewing machine, pressure develops up to 5000 atmospheres.

64. There is a physicist in outer space who received an award for the most ridiculous discovery in science. This is Andrey Geim from Holland, who in 2000 was awarded for studying the levitation of frogs.

65. Gasoline does not have a specific freezing point.

66.Granite conducts sound 10 times faster than air.

67.White color reflects light, and black attracts it.

68. By adding sugar to water, the egg will not drown in it.

69.Clean snow will melt more slowly than dirty snow.

70. A magnet will not act on stainless steel because it does not have different proportions of nickel that interfere with the iron atoms.

There are many legends about outstanding scientists and inventors, emphasizing their eccentricity, the unusualness of their discoveries and the unexpected twists and turns of fate. Below, in chronological order, are 10 from the lives of outstanding scientists who, thanks to their discoveries and scientific achievements, gained worldwide fame.

The most interesting facts, legends, speculations and gossip

According to information recently “declassified” on the Christian Internet resource “Megaportal”, a British scientist, the founder of the mathematical foundations of natural philosophy Isaac Newton(Isaac Newton), being a deeply religious man, devoted most of his life to the rational interpretation of the Bible. In records dating back to 1700, he provided the transcript “ Revelations of John the Theologian", from which it is clear that the start date of the Apocalypse is 2060. Having studied the Old Testament, the scientist reconstructed the exact dimensions of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

Around the same years, the German alchemist Hennig Brand(Hennig Brand), like most of his “colleagues,” was searching for the philosopher’s stone. He used human urine as his starting material. After numerous chemical experiments and physical influences in the form of evaporation, calcination and grinding, the scientist obtained a white powder that glows in the dark, which today is explained by its phosphorus content, the concentration of which was significantly increased during chemical transformations. Brand dubbed it “light-bearer” and, deciding that the powder belonged to the primary matter, tried to transform it into gold. After nothing came of this venture, the scientist began to trade in the powder itself, selling the luminous substance at a much higher price than the gold-containing substance. An equally interesting story is connected with phosphorus, which happened to the Soviet chemist, academician Semyon Isaakovich Volfkovich. While creating phosphate mineral fertilizers, the scientist in his laboratory was exposed to phosphorus fumes, which soaked his clothes, raincoat and hat. When he returned home on foot, exercising through the dark streets, a glow emanated from his robes, which gave rise to rumors among Muscovites about a “luminous monk” who had appeared.

Russian academician Mikhailo Vasilievich Lomonosov, who came from Pomor fishermen, was distinguished by his fair health and physical strength. Already in adulthood, being in high scientific ranks, he, well drunk, walked along Vasilyevsky Island. He came across three sailors who, seeing a drunk man, decided to rob him. However, this attempt ended tragicomically - the first sailor was beaten until he lost consciousness, the second ran away, and the third learned man himself decided to rob. He took off the sailor’s ports, jacket and camisole, and then, tying all this equipment in a bundle, he took it to his home. After the death of Mikhail Lomonosov, all his lifetime notes, sketches and drawings mysteriously disappeared from the library of the former favorite of Catherine the Great, Grigory Orlov, where they were kept by imperial command.

Few people know that the English traveler, ornithologist and naturalist Charles Darwin(Charles Darwin) considered tasting them as one of the methods for studying birds. Having joined the London gourmet club, Darwin ate dishes prepared from the great marsh bittern, sparrowhawk and other inedible and inedible birds, as a result of which the ornithologist came to the conclusion that starvation was not a terrible thing for Robinson Crusoe. However, after the guests at the club were treated to a roast from an old owl, the scientist vomited for a long time, and he terminated his membership in the gourmet society. But Charles Darwin did not lose his passion for exotic dishes and described in great detail the taste sensations when eating dishes from rare animals that the ship’s cook prepared for him while sailing on the brig Beagle. He not only ate various prepared dishes of agouti, Galapagos tortoise and rhea ostrich, but also dared to taste roasted armadillo and the South American mountain lion - cougar. Summarizing his gourmet experience, Charles Darwin noted that the variety of meat dishes prepared from the most unusual animals and birds awakened his predatory instincts.

The world's first female professor of mathematics Sofya Vasilievna Kovalevskaya I dreamed of getting a higher education, but the Bestuzhev courses that existed in Russia at that time did not provide such an opportunity, and to study abroad at European universities, the written permission of my father or husband was required. Her father, a lieutenant general of artillery, considered higher education “not a woman’s business” and was categorically against his daughter’s foreign voyage. Sofya Korvin-Krukovskaya was forced to enter into a fictitious marriage with a young geologist, founder of the school of evolutionary paleontology, Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky. My husband graciously gave permission to study. However, the fictitiousness of the marriage did not prevent the emergence and development of tender feelings, and the couple had a daughter, Sophia.

While receiving primary education, deeply religious Albert Einstein(Albert Einstein) became famous among teachers and classmates as a poor student who was not good at exact sciences. However, after entering the gymnasium, he rethought his views after reading Euclidean “Elements” and Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”. Unfortunately, this did not help him obtain a certificate of completion of six classes of gymnasium and enter the Zurich Polytechnic School. Since then, Albert has disdained any cramming, believing that knowledge is rethought and consolidated in the brain with the help of some kind of “insight.” Apparently, these factors affected the attitude of the discoverer of the theory of relativity to teaching. As the scientist himself recalls with humor, by the end of his first lecture there were only three people left in the audience.

Professor at the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) Thomas Parnell(Thomas Parnell) became widely known for staging the longest experiment in the history of physical chemistry. After repeated debates about whether bitumen was a liquid or a solid, the professor in 1927 sealed a measured dose of coal tar pitch in a funnel. The first drop at room temperature fell after 8 years. The experiment continues to the present day - in 2000, the eighth drop formed and fell, after which Parnell’s experiment was entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest experiment in the history of physics, and the professor himself was posthumously awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in 2005. Contemporary scientists joked about T. Parnell that, following in the footsteps of Isaac Newton, studying the Bible, he determined the ambient temperature in hell, which is + 718°C.

Interesting facts from the life of physicists

Physicists became famous for the most interesting facts, statements and incidents in their lives.

After the discovery by a German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen(Wilhelm Röntgen) “X” rays, later named after the inventor, Germany was filled with rumors about their healing and power. At that time, V. Roentgen was teaching at the University of Vienna, and one day he received an order from the Austrian police prohibiting him “until further notice” from dealing with “X” rays. Later, the scientist received a request to send several rays by mail and instructions on how to use them to illuminate the chest. Referring to the cumbersome nature of the equipment, Roentgen came up with a counter-proposal - to send the chest for diagnostics of the lungs.

British physicist Ernest Rezerford(Ernest Rutherford) answered one of his envious people, who reproached the scientist that the latter is always on the crest of a physical wave - “...how could it be otherwise, if I raised this wave.”

Soviet physicist Lev Davidovich Landau was known among his contemporaries not so much for his theoretical calculations in the field of quantum physics, but for the “theory of happiness” he personally developed. He considered marriage a cooperative, very far from true, sublime love, in which everything should be common and accessible to outsiders. True, the physicist extended this accessibility not so much to his wives and lovers, but to himself. The main postulate of this theory was a “non-aggression pact”, which prohibited the jealousy of one of the spouses for the betrayal of the other.

These are 10 from the lives of outstanding scientists who became famous not only for their eccentricities, outrageousness and originality of thinking, but also made a huge contribution to the development of science.

Studying physics means studying the Universe. More precisely, how the Universe works. Without a doubt, physics is the most interesting branch of science, since the Universe is much more complex than it seems, and it contains everything that exists. The world is a very strange place sometimes, and you might have to be a real enthusiast to share in our joy about this list. Here are ten of the most amazing discoveries in modern physics that have left many, many scientists scratching their heads not for years but for decades.

At the speed of light time stops

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, the speed of light is constant - approximately 300,000,000 meters per second, regardless of the observer. This in itself is incredible, given that nothing can travel faster than light, but is still highly theoretical. There's an interesting part of special relativity called time dilation, which says that the faster you move, the slower time moves for you, unlike your surroundings. If you drive for an hour, you will age a little less than if you just sat at home at your computer. The extra nanoseconds are unlikely to significantly change your life, but the fact remains.

It turns out that if you move at the speed of light, time will completely freeze in place? This is true. But before you try to become immortal, keep in mind that moving at the speed of light is impossible unless you are lucky enough to be born of light. From a technical point of view, moving at the speed of light would require an infinite amount of energy.

We have just come to the conclusion that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Well... yes and no. While this remains technically true, there is a loophole in the theory that has been found in the most incredible branch of physics: quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics is essentially the study of physics at microscopic scales, such as the behavior of subatomic particles. These types of particles are incredibly small, but extremely important because they form the building blocks of everything in the universe. You can think of them as tiny, spinning, electrically charged balls. Without unnecessary complications.

So we have two electrons (subatomic particles with a negative charge). is a special process that binds these particles in such a way that they become identical (have the same spin and charge). When this happens, the electrons become identical from that point on. This means that if you change one of them - say, change the spin - the second one will react immediately. Regardless of where he is. Even if you don't touch it. The impact of this process is amazing - you realize that in theory this information (in this case, the direction of the spin) can be teleported anywhere in the universe.

Gravity affects light

Let's return to the light and talk about the general theory of relativity (also authored by Einstein). This theory includes a concept known as light bending - the path of light may not always be straight.

No matter how strange it may sound, this has been proven repeatedly. Although light has no mass, its path depends on things that have mass - like the sun. So if light from a distant star passes close enough to another star, it will go around it. How does this affect us? It’s simple: perhaps the stars we see are in completely different places. Remember the next time you look at the stars: it could all just be a trick of the light.

Thanks to some of the theories we've already discussed, physicists have fairly accurate ways of measuring the total mass present in the universe. They also have fairly accurate ways of measuring the total mass that we can observe - but bad luck, the two numbers don't match.

In fact, the amount of total mass in the Universe is much greater than the total mass we can count. Physicists had to search for an explanation for this, and the result was a theory that included dark matter - a mysterious substance that does not emit light and accounts for approximately 95% of the mass in the Universe. Although the existence of dark matter has not been formally proven (because we cannot observe it), the evidence is overwhelming for dark matter and it must exist in some form.

Our Universe is expanding rapidly

The concepts are getting more complex, and to understand why, we need to go back to the Big Bang theory. Before it became a popular TV show, the Big Bang theory was an important explanation for the origin of our universe. To put it simply: our universe began with a bang. Debris (planets, stars, etc.) spread in all directions, driven by the enormous energy of the explosion. Because the debris is quite heavy, we expected that this explosive propagation would slow down over time.

But that did not happen. In fact, the expansion of our Universe is happening faster and faster as time goes on. And it's strange. This means that space is constantly growing. The only possible way to explain this is dark matter, or rather dark energy, which causes this constant acceleration. What is dark energy? To you .

All matter is energy

Matter and energy are simply two sides of the same coin. In fact, you always knew this if you ever saw the formula E = mc 2. E is energy and m is mass. The amount of energy contained in a particular amount of mass is determined by multiplying the mass by the square of the speed of light.

The explanation for this phenomenon is quite fascinating and involves the fact that the mass of an object increases as it approaches the speed of light (even if time slows down). The proof is quite complicated, so you can just take my word for it. Look at atomic bombs, which convert fairly small amounts of matter into powerful bursts of energy.

Wave-particle duality

Some things are not as clear cut as they seem. At first glance, particles (such as an electron) and waves (such as light) appear to be completely different. The first are solid pieces of matter, the second are beams of radiated energy, or something like that. Like apples and oranges. It turns out that things like light and electrons are not limited to just one state - they can be both particles and waves at the same time, depending on who is looking at them.

Seriously. It sounds funny, but there is concrete evidence that light is a wave and light is a particle. Light is both. Simultaneously. Not some kind of intermediary between two states, but precisely both. We are back in the realm of quantum mechanics, and in quantum mechanics the Universe loves this way and not otherwise.

All objects fall at the same speed

Many people may think that heavy objects fall faster than light ones - this sounds common sense. Surely a bowling ball falls faster than a feather. This is true, but not due to gravity - the only reason it turns out this way is because the earth's atmosphere provides resistance. 400 years ago, Galileo first realized that gravity works the same on all objects, regardless of their mass. If you were with a bowling ball and a feather on the Moon (which has no atmosphere), they would fall at the same time.

That's it. At this point you can go crazy.

You think that space itself is empty. This assumption is quite reasonable - that’s what space, space, is for. But the Universe does not tolerate emptiness, therefore, in space, in space, in emptiness, particles are constantly born and die. They are called virtual, but in fact they are real, and this has been proven. They exist for a fraction of a second, but that's long enough to break some fundamental laws of physics. Scientists call this phenomenon "quantum foam" because it closely resembles the gas bubbles in a carbonated soft drink.

Double slit experiment

We noted above that anything can be both a particle and a wave at the same time. But here's the catch: if you have an apple in your hand, we know exactly what shape it is. This is an apple, not some apple wave. What determines the state of a particle? Answer: us.

The double slit experiment is just an incredibly simple and mysterious experiment. This is what it is. Scientists place a screen with two slits against a wall and shoot a beam of light through the slit so we can see where it will hit the wall. Since light is a wave, it will create a certain diffraction pattern and you will see streaks of light scattered throughout the wall. Although there were two gaps.

But the particles should react differently - flying through two slits, they should leave two stripes on the wall strictly opposite the slits. And if light is a particle, why doesn't it exhibit this behavior? The answer is that light will exhibit this behavior - but only if we want it to. As a wave, light will travel through both slits at the same time, but as a particle, it will travel through only one. All we need to turn light into a particle is to measure each particle of light (photon) that passes through the slit. Imagine a camera that photographs every photon that passes through a slit. The same photon cannot fly through another slit without being a wave. The interference pattern on the wall will be simple: two stripes of light. We physically change the results of an event simply by measuring them, by observing them.

This is called the "observer effect". And while that's a nice way to end this article, it doesn't even scratch the surface of the absolutely incredible things physicists are finding. There are a bunch of variations of the double slit experiment that are even crazier and more interesting. You can look for them only if you are not afraid that quantum mechanics will suck you in.

Physics is often associated with a boring and difficult topic. But often we don't even realize how many physical phenomena we see and use in our daily lives.

Physics can be quite interesting. Instead of talking about complicated equations, we will tell you about fun and interesting useful facts from physics.

Atom

All objects around us are made of atoms. Atoms are so small that by the time we write this sentence, 100,000 atoms could have already formed.

In fact, the Greeks were the first to talk about the existence of atoms 2,400 years ago. But the idea of ​​atoms came and went and was not returned to until 1808, when John Dalton experimentally demonstrated that atoms do exist.

Atoms are part of the molecules of objects that we use every day, that we touch and see. There are so many atoms in one grain of sand that their number can be compared to the number of grains of sand themselves on the beach.

Solids and liquids

Solids are rigid because their molecules hold each other tightly together: here the molecules are arranged in a straight row. The molecules of solids cannot move around each other, so they remain motionless (although their atoms constantly vibrate).

In a liquid, on the other hand, the molecules also stick together tightly, but not as tightly as in solids, so they can move around and change shape. However, the liquid cannot be compressed, since its molecules are already located very close to each other.

Gas molecules are loosely bound to each other, so they can spread out and fill space. In addition, gas molecules can be compressed to smaller sizes.

There are thin and thick liquids, such as water and honey. The density of a liquid determines its viscosity.

Curiously, glass is not a solid. In reality, glass is a liquid, but it is so viscous that we cannot notice how it flows. At the bottom of the old windows you will notice that the glass is much thicker: this is due to the fact that over time the glass has flowed down.

Heating and cooling

When objects heat up, they become larger: this phenomenon is called thermal expansion. Gases, liquids and solids always expand when heated.

A fun experiment you can try is to put an open plastic bottle in the refrigerator. When the bottle has cooled, place a ball on its neck, and then place the bottle in a bowl of hot water. The balloon will fill with air on its own. After this, place the bottle with the balloon back into the refrigerator: after the bottle freezes again, the balloon will deflate. When heated, the air in the bottle expands and enters the ball, since there is not enough space in the container. When cooled, objects return to their original size.

Also, in case the metal lid gets stuck in the jar, you can run it under hot water and it will open. Metal expands more than glass, so the lid will loosen. Different materials expand differently, depending on how close the material's molecules are to each other.

Other facts from physics

• When driving at 80 kilometers per hour, cars use about half their fuel simply to overcome wind resistance.
• Water can go against gravity, moving up narrow pipes in a process called capillary action.
• Lightning is 3 times hotter than the Sun.
• It is possible to transform graphite into diamond by applying a temperature of 3000 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 100,000 atm.
• On average, our bodies constantly resist atmospheric pressure of about 1 kilogram per square inch.
• Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on our planet.
• Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less than normal when the Moon is directly overhead.
• When hydrogen burns in air, water is formed.
• "Light year" is a measure of distance, not time. It is defined as the distance that light travels in one year. Light moves at a speed of about 300 thousand kilometers every second, so in one year, it travels about 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers.
• Light has no mass, but it has weight. Weight is a measurement of the force exerted on something, and light can be bent by gravity.

We all heard a lot about them back in school. Thanks to the brilliant minds of the world's greatest physicists, humanity has a telephone, electric light, and an understanding of the laws of the Universe. We studied their theories and principles, inventions and discoveries, their successes and achievements from dry paragraphs in textbooks. But brilliant physicists are also people, with their own characteristics and quirks.

Newton: alchemy or physics

Not all of Isaac Newton's scientific discoveries have stood the test of time as well as the law of gravity. For example, he devoted many hours to alchemy. In fact, he was so interested in it that alchemy is now considered his main field, and real science was nothing more than a pastime. Unlike mathematics and physics, Newton does not even try to add new knowledge to alchemy, preferring instead to engage with theories put forward before him. As an alchemist, he was mainly focused on creating the philosopher's stone, which could turn other metals into gold and grant people immortality. After his death, research showed that he suffered from chronic poisoning from mercury, arsenic and lead, which proves his love of alchemy.

Einstein: the great scientist's difficulty speaking

As a child, Albert Einstein spoke very slowly. Until the age of 5, his speech was unclear; it took the child some time to put all the words into sentences and then speak at once in one breath. Albert's parents were concerned, believing that he might be retarded.

This is not the only case where future scientists had problems with speech and diction in childhood. This disorder of speech development was later called Einstein syndrome by psychologists.

Edison: a strange invention - a concrete house

Thomas Edison at one time tried to get into the cement business. For this purpose, he planned to solve the housing problem of New York. Edison conceived the idea of ​​building a house by pouring cement into one mold. Molds of various shapes were also provided for windows, stairs, and bathtubs. But in practice, the idea turned out to be unrealizable, and Edison abandoned this idea, although he built one concrete house for himself. He even created a concrete piano and concrete furniture, but people were not attracted to such “know-how”.

Pauli: mysticism and science

Do you know someone who can destroy electrical equipment just by being in the same room as them? Wolfgang Pauli was one of these people. According to stories, when a theoretical physicist entered the room, the laboratory equipment simply was not able to work. His friend Otto Stern actually banned Pauli from entering his laboratory. The scientist himself believed in this peculiarity of his. Pauli believed that mind and matter were interconnected, that human consciousness could influence the external world. Thus, the physicist considered himself a psychokineticist.

Galileo: persecution of the Church and recognition after death

The struggle against the Catholic Roman Church forced Galileo Galilei to face trials. The Church found him guilty of spreading unethical and false information in society. He was imprisoned and forced to vilify his own research and theories. All of Galileo's works were banned from publication.

Almost four hundred years after his death, the Roman Catholic Church has realized the mistake it made centuries ago. And she even apologized for her. In 2008, it was decided to erect a statue of Galileo in the Vatican.

Tesla: obsessive thoughts

Nikola Tesla submitted more 300 different patents, including designs for radios, AC motors and electromagnets. But according to the testimony of his contemporaries, he, like no one else, corresponded to the stereotypical image of a mad scientist. It all started with his interesting quirk of starting work at 3:00 in the morning, often staying up until 11:00. After falling ill at the age of 25, Tesla continued his strict regime for another 38 years, adding to this other oddities. For example, he came to hate jewelry of all kinds, but especially pearls, and felt a similar disgust at the presence of overweight women.

Pierre Curie: Science and the Supernatural

Pierre Curie, physicist and husband of Marie Sklodowska-Curie, had a very deep interest in mediums. In particular, he was friendly with Eusapia Palladino, an Italian female medium who claimed that she could move tables with her mind and communicate with spirits. Curie attended the seances, and was amazed that he could not find any evidence of deception.

A few days before his death in 1906, Pierre wrote to a friend about his last experience of participating in one of Palladino's sessions: "In my opinion, this is a region of completely new facts and physical states in space, about which we have not the slightest idea."

If Curie had lived a little longer, he would have learned that Palladino had been exposed as a fraud. It is discovered that she secretly used her leg to manipulate objects. The following year, she was caught using a strand of hair to move things undetected.

Bohr: a clever way to avoid difficult questions

Niels Bohr, while teaching physics at the University of Copenhagen, developed a wonderful way to avoid difficult and awkward questions. When cornered by a student during a seminar or lecture, he would pick up a matchbox, apparently to light an experimental fire, and allegedly accidentally drop it on the floor. The matches scattered, and Bohr spent some time collecting them. The questioner either lost the thread of the conversation or realized that the professor did not want to answer his questions.

Hubble: an aristocrat not by birth

The brilliant astronomer Edwin Hubble was a famous scientist who played a huge role in humanity's understanding of the laws of the Universe. However, according to most, he was a somewhat strange person. Even though he grew up in rural America, he decided that he would be an aristocrat. After a stint at Oxford University in England, he began speaking in a fake British accent and began walking around wearing classic capes and using a cane.