You are here: Home / Resources / Physics Timeline / Physics Timeline 1600 – 1650

Physics Timeline 1600 – 1650

Dates Characters Theories and discoveries
1600 Galileo Galilei Study of sound and vibrating strings
1600 William Gilbert Static electricity and magnetism
1604 Johannes Kepler Mirrors, lenses and vision
1604 Galileo Galilei Distance for falling object increases as square of time
1608 Hans Lippershey Optical telescope
1609 Lippershey and Janssen The compound microscope
1609 Johannes Kepler First and second laws of planetary motion
1609 Thomas Harriot Maps moon using a telescope
1609 Johannes Kepler Notion of energy
1610 Galileo Galilei Builds a telescope
1610 Galileo Galilei Observes the phases of Venus
1610 Galileo Galilei Observes moons of Jupiter
1610 Galileo Galilei Observes craters on the moon
1610 Galileo Galilei Observes stars in the Milky Way
1610 Galileo Galilei Observes structures around Saturn
1611 Fabricius, Galileo, Harriot, Scheiner Sunspots
1611 Marco de Dominis Explanation of rainbows
1611 Johannes Kepler Principles of the astronomical telescope
1612 Simon Marius Andromeda galaxy
1612 Galileo Galilei Hydrostatics
1613 Galileo Galilei Principle of inertia
1615 S. de Caus Forces and work
1618 Francesco Grimaldi Interference and diffraction of light
1619 Johannes Kepler Third law of planetary motion
1619 Johannes Kepler Explains why a comets tail points away from the Sun
1619 Rene Descartes Vision of rationalism
1620 Francis Bacon The empirical scientific method
1620 Francis Bacon Heat is motion
1620 Jan Baptista van Helmont, Introduces the word “gas”
1621 Willebrod Snell The sine law of refraction
1624 Galileo Galilei Theory of tides
1626 Godfried Wendilin Verification of Kepler’s laws for moons of Jupiter
1630 Cabaeus Attraction and repulsion of electric charges
1631 Pierre Gassendi Observes a transit of Mercury
1632 Galileo Galilei Galilean relativity
1632 Galileo Galilei Support for Copernicus’ heliocentric theory
1632 John Ray Water thermometer
1636 G. Pers de Roberval Gravitational forces are mutual attraction
1636 Marin Mersenne Speed of sound
1637 Rene Descartes Inertia, mechanistic physics
1637 Rene Descartes Refraction, rainbow and clouds
1638 Galileo Galilei Motion and friction
1639 Jeremiah Horrocks observes a transit of Venus
1640 Evangelista Torricelli Theory of hydrodynamics
1641 Ferdinand II Sealed thermometer
1642 Blaise Pascal Mechanical calculator
1644 Evangelista Torricelli Mercury barometer and artificial vacuum
1645 Ismael Boulliau Inverse square law for central force acting on planets
1648 Blaise Pascal Explains barometer as a result of atmospheric pressure
1650 Otto von Guericke Demonstration of the power of vacuum using two large hemispheres and 8 horses