---
title: "Scientific phenomena named after people"
chunk: 7/10
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_phenomena_named_after_people"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:01:38.936512+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== M ==
Mach band/effect, number, principle – Ernst Mach
Mach–Zehnder interferometer – Ludwig Mach and Ludwig Zehnder
Madelung constant, rule, energy – Erwin Madelung
Maggi–Righi–Leduc effect (Thermal Hall effect) – Gian Antonio Maggi, Augusto Righi and Sylvestre Anatole Leduc
Magnus effect – Heinrich Gustav Magnus
Magorrian relation – John Magorrian
Mahalanobis distance – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (প্রশান্ত চন্দ্র মহলানবিস)
Mahler measure, Mahler's theorem – Kurt Mahler
Maillard reaction
Malmquist bias, effect – Karl Gunnar Malmquist
Malus's law – Étienne-Louis Malus
Malthusian parameter – named by Ronald Fisher as a criticism of Thomas Robert Malthus
Malthusian catastrophe, growth model – Thomas Robert Malthus
Marangoni cell/convection (a.k.a. Bénard–Marangoni convection) – see Bénard–Marangoni cell/convection, above
Marangoni effect (a.k.a. Gibbs–Marangoni effect) – see Gibbs–Marangoni effect, above
Markov's inequality, chain, partition, Markovian process – Andrey Markov
Mathieu functions – Émile Léonard Mathieu
Matilda effect – Matilda Joslyn Gage
Matthew effect – Matthew the Evangelist
Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution – James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann
McCollough effect – Celeste McCollough
McCulloch–Pitts neuron – Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts
McGurk effect (a.k.a. McGurk–MacDonald effect) – Harry McGurk (and John MacDonald)
Mealy machine – George H. Mealy
Meissner effect (a.k.a. Meissner–Ochsenfeld effect) – Walther Meissner (and Robert Ochsenfeld)
Mendelian inheritance – Gregor Mendel
Menzerath's law (a.k.a. Menzerath–Altmann law) – Paul Menzerath (and Gabriel Altmann)
Mercalli intensity scale (Modified Mercalli scale) – Giuseppe Mercalli
Metonic cycle – Meton of Athens
Meyers synthesis – Albert I. Meyers
Mie scattering (a.k.a. Lorenz–Mie scattering) – Gustav Mie (and Ludvig Lorenz)
Mihăilescu's theorem (a.k.a. Catalan's conjecture) – Preda Mihăilescu
Mikheyev–Smirnov–Wolfenstein effect – Stanislav Mikheyev, Alexei Smirnov, and Lincoln Wolfenstein
Miller effect – John Milton Miller
Miller indices (a.k.a. Miller–Bravais indices) – William Hallowes Miller (and Auguste Bravais)
Misnay–Schardin effect – Col. József Misnay and Hubert Schardin
Mögel–Dellinger effect – see Dellinger effect, above
Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) – Andrija Mohorovičić
Mohr's circle – Christian Otto Mohr
Mohr–Coulomb theory – Christian Otto Mohr and Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Mooers's law – Calvin Mooers
Moore machine – Edward Forrest Moore
Moore's law – Gordon E. Moore
Morgan unit – Thomas Hunt Morgan
Moreton wave – Gail E. Moreton
Morse potential – Philip M. Morse
Moses effect – after biblical Moses
Mössbauer effect – Rudolf Mössbauer
Mott cross section, Mott insulator, Mott transition – Nevill Francis Mott
Mpemba effect – Erasto B. Mpemba
Müllerian mimicry – Fritz Müller
Munroe effect – Charles Edward Munroe
Muraour's law – Henri Muraour (1880–1954)
Murphy's law – Maj. Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

== N ==
Nambu–Goldstone boson (a.k.a. Goldstone boson) – Yoichiro Nambu and Jeffrey Goldstone
Nash equilibrium – John Forbes Nash
Nassi–Shneiderman diagram – Isaac Nassi and Ben Shneiderman
Necker cube – Louis Albert Necker
Needleman–Wunsch algorithm – Saul B. Needleman and Christian D. Wunsch
Néel temperature – Louis Néel
Nernst effect (a.k.a. Nernst–Ettingshausen effect) – Walther Hermann Nernst and Albert von Ettingshausen
Nernst equation – Walther Hermann Nernst
Neupert effect – Werner Neupert
Newcomb's paradox – William Newcomb
Newton's rings, Newtonian constant of gravitation, mechanics – Isaac Newton
Noether's theorem – Emmy Noether
Nordtvedt effect – Kenneth L. Nordtvedt
Nyquist frequency, Nyquist rate – Harry Nyquist
Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem (a.k.a. Nyquist–Shannon–Kotelnikov, Whittaker–Shannon–Kotelnikov, Whittaker–Nyquist–Kotelnikov–Shannon, WKS theorem) – Harry Nyquist, Claude Shannon, Edmund Taylor Whittaker, and Vladimir Kotelnikov

== O ==
Oberth effect – Hermann Oberth
O'Connell effect – Daniel Joseph Kelly O'Connell
Olbers's paradox – Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers
Ohm's law – Georg Ohm
Okun's law – Arthur Okun
Omori's law – Fusakichi Omori
Onnes effect – Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Oort cloud (a.k.a. Öpik–Oort cloud) – Jan Hendrik Oort (and Ernst Julius Öpik)
Ostriker–Peebles criterion – Jeremiah P. Ostriker and Jim Peebles
Ostwald's dilution law, Ostwald process – Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald
Overhauser effect – Albert Overhauser
Ovshinsky effect – Stanford R. Ovshinsky

== P ==
Paal–Knorr synthesis – Carl Paal and Ludwig Knorr
Pareto chart, distribution, efficiency, index, principle – Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto
Pareto–Zipf law (a.k.a. Zipf–Mandelbrot law) – Vilfredo Pareto and George K. Zipf (or Benoît Mandelbrot)
Parrondo's games, paradox – Juan Manuel Rodríguez Parrondo
Paschen curve, line, law – Friedrich Paschen
Paschen–Back effect – Friedrich Paschen and Ernst Back
Pasteur effect – Louis Pasteur
Paternò–Büchi reaction – Emanuele Paternò and George Büchi
Pauli exclusion principle – Wolfgang Pauli
Peano curve – Giuseppe Peano
Pearson–Anson effect – Stephen Oswald Pearson and Horatio Saint George Anson
Péclet number – Jean Claude Eugène Péclet
Peltier effect – Jean Charles Athanase Peltier
Perlin noise – Ken Perlin
Perron–Frobenius theorem – Oskar Perron, and Ferdinand Georg Frobenius
Petkau effect – Abram Petkau
Petri dish – Julius Richard Petri
Petri net – Carl Adam Petri
Peyer's patches – Johann Conrad Peyer
Pfeiffer effect – Paul Pfeiffer
Pfund line/series – August Herman Pfund
Phillips curve – William Phillips (economist)
Pigou effect – Arthur Cecil Pigou
Piobert's law – Guillaume Piobert (1793–1871)
Pisot–Vijayaraghavan number – Charles Pisot and Tirukkannapuram Vijayaraghavan
Planck constant, length, mass, time – Max Planck
Platonic year – Plato
Pockels effect – Friedrich Carl Alwin Pockels
Pogson ratio – Norman Robert Pogson
Poincaré map, section – Henri Poincaré
Poincaré–Bendixson theorem – Henri Poincaré and Ivar Otto Bendixson
Poinsot's spirals – Louis Poinsot
Polchinski's paradox – Joseph Polchinski
Potts model (a.k.a. Ashkin–Teller model) – Renfrey B. Potts, Julius Ashkin, and Edward Teller
Pourbaix diagram – Marcel Pourbaix
Poynting effect, vector – John Henry Poynting
Poynting–Robertson effect – John Henry Poynting and Howard P. Robertson
Prandtl number – Ludwig Prandtl
Primakoff effect – Henry Primakoff
Proteus phenomenon – Proteus (mythological god)
Pulfrich effect – Carl P. Pulfrich
Purkinje effect/shift – Johannes Evangelista Purkinje
Pygmalion effect (a.k.a. Rosenthal effect, observer-expectancy effect) – Pygmalion (and Robert Rosenthal)
Pythagorean theorem (a.k.a. Pythagoras's theorem) – Pythagoras