Within the field of physics, experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines which use direct means of observation of physical phenomena in order to obtain data about the universe. The similar goal of all these disciplines is to collect and explain the data which is gathered. The methods vary, from simple experiments and observations to more complicated ones, such as the LHC.
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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.
Method
- Main article: Experiment
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.
Experimentalists
Experimentalists are scientists who engage in experimental physics research or study a field contained within the category of experimental physics. Many early experimentalists were/are also theoretical physicists. Some of the more notable experimental physicists were/are Galileo Galilei, Michael Faraday, Ernst Mach, Ernest Rutherford, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Antoine Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, Sir Joseph John Thomson, Max von Laue, William Lawrence Bragg, Albert Abraham Michelson, Robert Andrews Millikan, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Orlando Lawrence, William Bradford Shockley, and John Bardeen.
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
