Physics topic timeline
Thermodynamics Timeline
Records in the Physics collection relating to thermodynamics, entropy, heat, temperature and thermal radiation.
About this Thermodynamics timeline
Trace the physics of heat, work, temperature, entropy and thermal radiation from nineteenth-century foundations into modern physics.
This page contains 35 records spanning 1662–1995. Frequently represented countries include Germany, Austria, Great Britain, France, United States of America. Example event labels include Boyle's Law, Discovery of Thermodynamics, Absolute Temperature Scale, Discovery of Kelvin Scale, first.
Physicists frequently represented in these records
Timeline records
| Date | Person | Event | Place | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1662 | Robert Boyle Scientist | Boyle's Law | London, England | States that the volume of a gas varies inversely with pressure when temperature is constant. |
| 1824 | Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot | Discovery of Thermodynamics | France | Helps discover the 2nd law of Thermodynamics |
| 1848 | William Thomson Kelvin Professor | Absolute Temperature Scale | Glasgow, Great Britain | Proposes an absolute thermodynamic temperature scale while professor at Glasgow. |
| 1848 | William Thomson Kelvin, 1st Baron · Professor | Discovery of Kelvin Scale | Great Britain | Proposes the absolute Kelvin scale for measuring temperature |
| 1850 | Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius | first | Germany | His most important paper, On the mechanical theory of heat, published in 1850, first states the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics |
| 1850 | Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius | in 1850 | Germany | His most important paper, On the mechanical theory of heat, published in 1850, first states the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics |
| 1850 | Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius | Thermodynamics | Germany | His most important paper, On the mechanical theory of heat, published in 1850, first states the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics |
| 1865 | Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius | Discovery of Entropy | Germany | Introduces the concept of entropy |
| 1870 | Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann | Discovery of Entropy | Austria | The statistical definition is developed by Ludwig Boltzmann in the 1870s by analyzing the statistical behavior of the microscopic components of the system |
| 1877 | Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann Physicist | Boltzmann Entropy Formula | Vienna, Austria | Connects thermodynamic entropy with the number of microscopic states. |
| 1877 | Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann Physicist | Statistical Entropy | Vienna, Austria | Expresses entropy statistically through the formula later engraved on his tomb. |
| 1879 | Josef Stefan Physicist | Stefan Radiation Law | Vienna, Austria | Formulates the fourth-power relationship between temperature and radiated energy. |
| 1895 | Pierre Curie Physicist | Curie Law | Paris, France | Formulates the inverse relation between susceptibility and temperature. |
| 1895 | Pierre Curie Physicist | Curie Point | Paris, France | Shows that magnetic properties change at a critical temperature. |
| 1896 | Svante August Arrhenius Physical Chemist | Carbon Dioxide Climate Calculation | Stockholm, Sweden | Calculates how atmospheric carbon dioxide changes could affect global temperature. |
| 1901 | Owen Willans Richardson Physicist | Thermionic Electron Emission | Cambridge, Great Britain | Establishes the temperature dependence of electron emission from heated metals, foundational for vacuum-tube electronics. |
| 1903 | Albert Einstein Physicist | Foundations of Thermodynamics | Bern, Switzerland | Publishes further work on the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. |
| 30 October 1911 | Walther Nernst Physical Chemist | Radiation and Quanta Conference | Brussels, Germany | Engages in international debate on quantum and thermodynamic problems. |
| 10 December 1911 | Wilhelm Wien Professor of Physics | Heat Radiation Recognition | Stockholm, Germany | Is honored for foundational discoveries concerning black-body heat radiation. |
| 1922 | Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Professor | Zurich Thermodynamics Research | Zurich, Austria | Works on thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and the specific heats of solids during his early years at Zurich. |
| 1924 | Albert Einstein Physicist | Bose-Einstein Condensation Prediction | Berlin, Germany | Predicts that ideal bosonic particles can accumulate in the lowest quantum state at low temperature. |
| 1944 | Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Author | Negative Entropy Discussion | Dublin, Austria | Explains biological organization using the language of thermodynamics and describes living systems as sustaining order through exchanges with their environment. |
| 1946 | Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Author | Statistical Thermodynamics Publication | Dublin, Austria | Publishes Statistical Thermodynamics, presenting a concise treatment of entropy, ensembles and the statistical foundations of thermodynamic behaviour. |
| 1973 | James Bardeen Physicist | Four Laws of Black Hole Mechanics | United States of America | With Brandon Carter and Stephen Hawking, formulates the four laws of black hole mechanics and their analogy with thermodynamics. |
| 1973 | Brandon Carter Physicist | Four Laws of Black Hole Mechanics | Australia | With James Bardeen and Stephen Hawking, formulates the four laws of black hole mechanics and their analogy with thermodynamics. |
| 15 January 1976 | Stephen William Hawking Physicist | Black Holes and Thermodynamics | Great Britain | Explores the thermodynamic interpretation of black holes and the relationship between horizon area, entropy and temperature. |
| 1977 | Gary Gibbons Physicist | Black Hole Euclidean Action | Great Britain | With Stephen Hawking, develops Euclidean gravitational methods that connect black hole action, temperature and thermodynamic partition functions. |
| 10 December 1978 | Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa Physicist | Low-Temperature Physics | Stockholm, Russia | The achievement marks low-temperature physics as an important Russian scientific milestone. |
| 10 December 1978 | Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa Physicist | Nobel Prize in Physics | Stockholm, Russia | Receives the Nobel Prize for discoveries in low-temperature physics. |
| 1980 | Klaus von Klitzing Physicist | Integer Quantum Hall Effect | Grenoble, Germany | Discovers precisely quantized Hall resistance in a two-dimensional electron system at low temperature and high magnetic field. |
| 1983 | Don Page Physicist | Hawking-Page Transition | Canada | With Stephen Hawking, identifies the thermodynamic phase transition now called the Hawking-Page transition in anti-de Sitter space. |
| 1985 | Gerard 't Hooft Physicist | Brick Wall Model | Netherlands | Introduces the brick wall model for calculating black hole entropy from quantum fields near an event horizon. |
| 1993 | Don Page Physicist | Page Curve | Canada | Derives the characteristic entropy evolution now called the Page curve for radiation from an evaporating black hole under unitary evolution. |
| 1993 | Robert Wald Physicist | Noether Charge Entropy | United States of America | Shows that black hole entropy in a broad class of gravitational theories can be expressed as a Noether charge. |
| 1995 | Leonard Susskind Physicist | The World as a Hologram | United States of America | Develops the holographic principle in a concrete framework motivated by black hole entropy and information. |