Scientific constants named after people
Encyclopedia
This is a list of physical
and mathematical constant
s named after people.
Physical constant
A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement.There are many physical constants in...
and mathematical constant
Mathematical constant
A mathematical constant is a special number, usually a real number, that is "significantly interesting in some way". Constants arise in many different areas of mathematics, with constants such as and occurring in such diverse contexts as geometry, number theory and calculus.What it means for a...
s named after people.
- Archimedes' constantPi' is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formulae in mathematics, science, and engineering involve , which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants...
— ArchimedesArchimedesArchimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an... - Avogadro's numberAvogadro's numberIn chemistry and physics, the Avogadro constant is defined as the ratio of the number of constituent particles N in a sample to the amount of substance n through the relationship NA = N/n. Thus, it is the proportionality factor that relates the molar mass of an entity, i.e...
— Amedeo AvogadroAmedeo AvogadroLorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro di Quaregna e di Cerreto, Count of Quaregna and Cerreto was an Italian savant. He is most noted for his contributions to molecular theory, including what is known as Avogadro's law... - Bohr magneton — Niels BohrNiels BohrNiels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
- Bohr radiusBohr radiusThe Bohr radius is a physical constant, approximately equal to the most probable distance between the proton and electron in a hydrogen atom in its ground state. It is named after Niels Bohr, due to its role in the Bohr model of an atom...
— Niels BohrNiels BohrNiels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in... - Boltzmann constant — Ludwig BoltzmannLudwig BoltzmannLudwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics...
- Cabibbo angle — Nicola CabibboNicola CabibboNicola Cabibbo was an Italian physicist, best known for his work on the weak interaction. He was also the president of the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics from 1983 to 1992, and from 1993 until his death he was the president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences...
- Chandrasekhar limitChandrasekhar limitWhen a star starts running out of fuel, it usually cools off and collapses into one of three compact forms, depending on its total mass:* a White Dwarf, a big lump of Carbon and Oxygen atoms, almost like one huge molecule...
— Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharSubrahmanyan ChandrasekharSubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, FRS ) was an Indian origin American astrophysicist who, with William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics for key discoveries that led to the currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars... - Coulomb's constant — Charles-Augustin de CoulombCharles-Augustin de CoulombCharles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist. He is best known for developing Coulomb's law, the definition of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. The [SI unit] of charge, the coulomb, was named after him....
- Eddington numberEddington numberIn astrophysics, the Eddington number, NEdd, is the number of protons in the observable universe. The name honors the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington who, in 1938, was the first to propose a calculation of NEdd, and to explain why this number could be important for cosmology and the...
— Arthur Stanley EddingtonArthur Stanley EddingtonSir Arthur Stanley Eddington, OM, FRS was a British astrophysicist of the early 20th century. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science... - Euler's constant — Leonhard EulerLeonhard EulerLeonhard Euler was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in fields as diverse as infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion...
- Faraday constant — Michael FaradayMichael FaradayMichael Faraday, FRS was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
- Feigenbaum constantsFeigenbaum constantsThe Feigenbaum constants are two mathematical constants named after the mathematician Mitchell Feigenbaum. Both express ratios in a bifurcation diagram.The first Feigenbaum constant ,...
— Mitchell FeigenbaumMitchell FeigenbaumMitchell Jay Feigenbaum is a mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constants.- Biography :... - Hartree energyHartree energyThe hartree , also known as the Hartree energy, is the atomic unit of energy, named after the British physicist Douglas Hartree. It is defined as...
— Douglas HartreeDouglas HartreeDouglas Rayner Hartree PhD, FRS was an English mathematician and physicist most famous for the development of numerical analysis and its application to the Hartree-Fock equations of atomic physics and the construction of the meccano differential analyser.-Early life:Douglas Hartree was born in... - Hubble's constant — Edwin HubbleEdwin HubbleEdwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed the understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way - our own galaxy...
- Josephson constant — Brian David JosephsonBrian David JosephsonBrian David Josephson, FRS is a Welsh physicist. He became a Nobel Prize laureate in 1973 for the prediction of the eponymous Josephson effect....
- Kerr constant — John KerrJohn Kerr (physicist)John Kerr FRS was a Scottish physicist and a pioneer in the field of electro-optics. He is best known for the discovery of what is now called the Kerr effect.-Life and work:...
- Loschmidt constant — Johann Josef LoschmidtJohann Josef LoschmidtJan or Johann Josef Loschmidt , who referred to himself mostly as 'Josef' , was a notable Austrian scientist who performed groundbreaking work in chemistry, physics , and crystal forms.Born in Carlsbad, a town located in the Austrian Empire , Loschmidt...
- Planck's constant — Max PlanckMax PlanckMax Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, ForMemRS, was a German physicist who actualized the quantum physics, initiating a revolution in natural science and philosophy. He is regarded as the founder of the quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.-Life and career:Planck came...
- Rydberg constantRydberg constantThe Rydberg constant, symbol R∞, named after the Swedish physicist Johannes Rydberg, is a physical constant relating to atomic spectra in the science of spectroscopy. Rydberg initially determined its value empirically from spectroscopy, but Niels Bohr later showed that its value could be calculated...
— Johannes RydbergJohannes RydbergJohannes Robert Rydberg, , , was a Swedish physicist mainly known for devising the Rydberg formula, in 1888, which is used to predict the wavelengths of photons emitted by changes in the energy level of an electron in a hydrogen atom.The physical constant known as the... - Sackur–Tetrode constant — Otto SackurOtto SackurOtto Sackur was a German physical chemist.He is known for the development of the Sackur-Tetrode equation which he developed independently of Hugo Tetrode...
and Hugo TetrodeHugo TetrodeHugo Martin Tetrode was a Dutch theoretical physicist who contributed to statistical physics, early quantum theory and quantum mechanics.... - Stefan–Boltzmann constant — Jožef StefanJoseph StefanJoseph Stefan was a physicist, mathematician, and poet of Slovene mother tongue and Austrian citizenship.- Life and work :...
and Ludwig BoltzmannLudwig BoltzmannLudwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics... - von Klitzing constant — Klaus von KlitzingKlaus von KlitzingKlaus von Klitzing is a German physicist known for discovery of the integer quantum Hall Effect, for which he was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics....
- Wien displacement law constant — Wilhelm WienWilhelm WienWilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien was a German physicist who, in 1893, used theories about heat and electromagnetism to deduce Wien's displacement law, which calculates the emission of a blackbody at any temperature from the emission at any one reference temperature.He also formulated an...
See also
- EponymEponymAn eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
, for other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) - List of eponyms, for a list of eponyms sorted by name