Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The History of Physics Podcast
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The History of Physics Podcast
The History of Physics Podcast episodes
- Ørsted’s Twitching Compass Needle: The Experiment That Linked Electricity and Magnetism
In this episode we trace Hans Christian Ørsted’s 1820 experiment that revealed a current‑produced magnetic field, sparking the unification of electricity and magnetism. We explore the experimental setup, Ørsted’s reasoning, the scientific community’s reaction, and how this simple observation became foundational for Maxwell, Faraday, and modern electromagnetic technology.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
17 min - Schrödinger’s Wave Equation: From Ancient Impetus to Modern Quantum Theory
This episode traces the path from Avicenna’s early ideas about motion, through Newton and Huygens’ debate on light, to Schrödinger’s famous wave equation—exploring how a series of missteps and debates forged the modern understanding of electrons as waves.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 min - Democritus’s Atom: From Greek Specks to Quantum Reality
This episode follows Democritus and Leucippus’s bold atomistic hypothesis through the ages—examining how it survived philosophical debate, inspired Dalton’s gas law experiments, and ultimately underpins modern quantum field theory. We uncover why this ancient idea still shapes today’s physics enterprise.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 min - The Myth of Heavier Falls: Aristotle, Galileo, and the Birth of Modern Mechanics
From Aristotle’s early claim that heavier objects fall faster to Galileo’s daring experiments from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, this episode traces how a simple observation reshaped motion, challenged medieval doctrine, and laid the groundwork for Newtonian physics.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
17 min - Kepler’s Ellipse Revolution: How an Eight‑Minute Error Changed Astronomy
Johannes Kepler’s decision to abandon the perfect circle after spotting an eight‑minute discrepancy in Mars’ orbit marked a turning point in celestial mechanics. This episode traces how precise observations, mathematical insight, and a willingness to challenge long‑standing ideals reshaped astronomy and set the stage for Newtonian gravity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 min - Solar Neutrinos Revealed: From Underground Tanks to Oscillations
This episode follows the journey from Raymond Davis Jr.’s perchloroethylene tank in South Dakota to the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory’s heavy‑water experiment, tracing how a persistent deficit of solar neutrinos forced physicists to accept neutrino oscillations and endow these particles with mass. It highlights the key figures—Davis, Bahcall, Kamiokande teams, SNO collaborators—and explores the broader implications for particle physics, cosmology, and experimental methodology.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
18 min - Archimedes and the Floating Crown: The Birth of Buoyancy Theory
From a king’s suspicion of a forged crown to the birth of Archimedes’ buoyancy principle, this episode traces how a simple bath experiment laid the groundwork for modern fluid dynamics. We explore the science, the skeptics, and the legacy that still influences submarines, ships, and lab balances today.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
19 min - Eddington’s Eclipse, Einstein’s Entanglement, and Ibn al‑Haytham’s Pinholes: Tracing Physics Through Observation
From Arthur Eddington’s 1919 eclipse test of general relativity to the Einstein‑Podolsky‑Rosen paradox that birthed quantum entanglement, and back to Ibn al‑Haytham’s pinhole experiments that reshaped optics, this episode charts how observation has driven physics through centuries. It highlights key figures, groundbreaking experiments, and the lasting impacts on science and technology.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
16 min - Democritus' Atomism: From Ancient Speculation to Modern Physics Foundations
Explore how 5th‑century BCE philosopher Democritus first imagined indivisible atoms and a void, sparking a debate that would endure through Aristotle’s critique and eventually shape the scientific method. The episode traces the intellectual journey from mythic speculation to the logical framework that underpins today’s atomic theory.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 min - Einstein's Falling Elevator: How a Simple Thought Experiment Rewrote Gravity
Explore how Einstein’s 1907 falling‑elevator thought experiment led to the equivalence principle, reshaped our understanding of gravity, and continues to underpin GPS navigation and modern experiments like LIGO.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 min
About The History of Physics Podcast
From the publisher's feed
Explore the extraordinary history of physics, from the earliest attempts to explain motion, matter, light, and the heavens to the discoveries that transformed our understanding of space, time, energy, atoms, and the universe. The History of Physics Podcast follows the thinkers, experiments, equations, instruments, institutions, and scientific revolutions that built modern physics across thousands of years.
Episodes trace ideas from ancient Greek natural philosophy, astronomy, and mechanics through the Scientific Revolution, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, optics, statistical mechanics, relativity, quantum theory, nuclear physics, particle physics, cosmology, and the search for deeper laws of nature. The show also explores famous experiments, rivalries between scientists, failed theories, technological breakthroughs, major laboratories, mathematical innovations, and the historical circumstances that changed the direction of scientific thought.
Whether you are interested in Newton and Einstein, quantum mechanics, black holes, electricity, atomic theory, space exploration, or the people behind the equations, the podcast tells the human story of how physics developed and why its discoveries changed civilization. The History of Physics Podcast is hosted by Josh Linsk.