List of experiments in physics

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This is a list of notable experiments in physics. The list includes only experiments with Wikipedia articles. For hypothetical experiments, see thought experiment.

## Historical experiments

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Date of start  | Experiment  | Attribution  | Type  | About

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1586  | Delft tower experiment | Simon Stevin and Jan Cornets de Groot | Demonstration  | Same mass objects fall at the same speed on Earth
1643  | Torricelli's experiment | Evangelista Torricelli | Demonstration  | Vacuum relation to atmospheric pressure
1654  | Magdeburg hemispheres | Otto von Guericke | Demonstration  | Atmospheric pressure
1675  | Rømer's determination of the speed of light | Ole Rømer | Measurement  | Speed of light
1747  | 's Gravesande's ring | Willem 's Gravesande | Demonstration  | Thermal expansion
1752  | Kite experiment | Thomas-François Dalibard/Benjamin Franklin | Investigation  | Lightning
1774  | Schiehallion experiment | Nevil Maskelyne | Measurement  | Vertical deflection, Earth density
1790  | Pictet's experiment | Marc-Auguste Pictet | Demonstration  | Thermal radiation
1797  | Cavendish experiment | Henry Cavendish | Measurement  | Gravitational constant
1799  | Voltaic pile | Alessandro Volta | Demonstration  | First electric battery
1803  | Young's interference experiment | Thomas Young | Confirmation  | Wave theory of light
1819  | Arago spot experiment  | François Arago | Confirmation  | Fresnel diffraction due to circular object
1838  | Bedford Level experiment | Samuel Rowbotham | Measurement  | Curvature of the Earth
1843  | Faraday's ice pail experiment | Michael Faraday | Demonstration  | Electromagnetic induction
1850  | Foucault's measurements of the speed of light | Léon Foucault | Measurement  | Speed of light
1851  | Fizeau experiment | Hippolyte Fizeau | Measurement  | Speed of light
1851  | Foucault pendulum | Léon Foucault | Demonstration  | Earth's rotation
1852  | Foucault's gyroscope | Léon Foucault | Demonstration  | Earth's rotation
1867  | Kelvin water dropper | Lord Kelvin (William Thomson)  | Demonstration  | Electrostatic generator
1867  | Tyndall's bar breaker | John Tyndall | Demonstration  | Thermal expansion forces
1885  | Eötvös experiment | Loránd Eötvös | Measurement  | Ratio between inertial and gravitational mass
1887  | Michelson–Morley experiment | Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley | Negative result  | Luminiferous aether
1897  | Thomson experiment | J. J. Thomson | Discovery  | Electron
1901  | Trouton–Noble experiment | Frederick Thomas Trouton and H. R. Noble.  | Negative result  | Luminiferous aether
1905  | Rubens tube | Heinrich Rubens | Demonstration  | Standing wave
1908  | Geiger–Marsden experiments | Hans Geiger, Ernest Marsden, Ernest Rutherford | Discovery  | Atomic nucleus
1909  | Oil drop experiment | Robert A. Millikan and Harvey Fletcher | Measurement  | Elementary charge of the electron
1913  | Compton generator | Arthur Compton | Demonstration  | Earth's rotation
1914  | Franck–Hertz experiment | James Franck and Gustav Hertz | Confirmation  | Bohr model
1914  | Blondel's experiments | André Blondel | Investigation  | Electromagnetic induction
1915  | Einstein–de Haas experiment | Albert Einstein and Wander Johannes de Haas | Investigation  | Electron magnetic moment
1919  | Eddington experiment | Arthur Eddington | Confirmation  | General relativity
1922  | Stern–Gerlach experiment | Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach | Confirmation  | Angular momentum quantization
1923  | Davisson–Germer experiment | Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer | Confirmation  | De Broglie hypothesis
1924  | Bothe–Geiger coincidence experiment | Walther Bothe and Hans Geiger | Confirmation  | Compton effect / conservation of energy
1925  | Michelson–Gale–Pearson experiment | Albert A. Michelson and Henry G. Gale | Measurement  | Earth's rotation
1929  | Rüchardt experiment | Eduard Rüchardt | Measurement  | Heat capacity ratio
1932  | Kennedy–Thorndike experiment | Roy J. Kennedy and Edward M. Thorndike  | Confirmation  | Inertial frame invariance of speed of light
1938  | Ives–Stilwell experiment | Herbert E. Ives and G. R. Stilwell  | Confirmation  | Relativistic Doppler shift
1942  | Chicago Pile-1 | Enrico Fermi | Demonstration  | First self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
1945  | Trinity | Manhattan Project | Demonstration  | First nuclear weapon detonation
1947  | Lamb–Retherford experiment | Willis Lamb and Robert Retherford | Discovery  | Lamb shift/Vacuum energy
1956  | Wu experiment | Chien-Shiung Wu | Confirmation  | Parity violation
1956  | Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment | Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines | Confirmation  | Existence of neutrino
1957  | Goldhaber experiment [fr] | Maurice Goldhaber | Confirmation  | Neutrino helicity
1958  | Hughes–Drever experiment | Giuseppe Cocconi and Edwin Ernest Salpeter | Confirmation  | Lorentz covariance
1959  | Pound–Rebka experiment | Robert Pound and Glen A. Rebka Jr. | Confirmation  | Gravitational redshift
1964  | Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation | Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson | Discovery  | Cosmic microwave background
1965  | Homestake experiment | Raymond Davis Jr. and John N. Bahcall | Measurement  | Count solar neutrinos/solar neutrino problem
1970  | Gargamelle | CERN | Discovery  | Neutral currents
1976  | Gravity Probe A | NASA | Measurement  | Gravitational time dilation
1977  | De Sitter double star experiment | Kenneth Brecher | Negative result  | de Sitter effect
1980  | Aspect's experiment | Alain Aspect | Confirmation  | Violation of Bell's inequalities
1981  | UA1 and UA2 experiments | CERN | Discovery  | W and Z bosons
1992  | DØ experiment | CERN | Multiple  | Top quark
1998  | Delayed-choice quantum eraser | Marlan Scully | Demonstration  | Delayed-choice (quantum mechanics)
2004  | Gravity Probe B | NASA/Stanford University | Confirmation  | Frame-dragging
2012  | Search for the Higgs boson | CERN | Confirmation  | Higgs boson
2015  | First observation of gravitational waves | LIGO | Confirmation  | Gravitational waves

## Articles on several experiments

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* Bell tests
* BICEP and Keck Array
* Coincidence method
* Discovery of the neutron
* Large Hadron Collider experiments
* List of Super Proton Synchrotron experiments
* Precision tests of QED
* Tests of special relativity
* Tests of relativistic energy and momentum
* Modern searches for Lorentz violation
* Measurements of neutrino speed

* Tests of general relativity
* Experimental testing of time dilation

## On-going experiments

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* Collider Detector at Fermilab
* China Dark Matter Experiment
* Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass Experiment
* General antiparticle spectrometer
* GlueX
* The E and B Experiment
* VIP2 experiment
* VITO experiment

## See also

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* List of accelerators in particle physics

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