---
title: "Scientific phenomena named after people"
chunk: 10/10
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"
---

== V ==
Vackář oscillator  – Jirí Vackář
Van Allen radiation belt – James Van Allen
Van de Graaff generator – Dr. Robert Jemison Van de Graaff
Van der Pol equation, oscillator – Balthasar van der Pol
Van der Waals force – Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Van Hove singularity – Léon Van Hove
Vavilovian mimicry – Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov
Veblen effect – Thorstein Veblen
Veitch diagram – see Karnaugh map, above
Venturi effect – Giovanni Battista Venturi
Venn diagram – John Venn
Vieille's law (a.k.a. St. Robert's law, often misspelled as Vielle's law) – Paul Marie Eugène Vieille
Vierordt's law – Karl von Vierordt
Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann equation – Hans Vogel, Gordon Scott Fulcher, and Gustav Tammann
Vogt–Russell theorem – Heinrich Vogt and Henry Norris Russell
Voigt effect, notation, profile – Woldemar Voigt
Voigt material – see Kelvin–Voigt material, above
Von Klitzing constant – Klaus von Klitzing
Von Neumann ordinal, von Neumann architecture – John von Neumann
Von Restorff effect – Hedwig von Restorff
Von Zeipel theorem – Edvard Hugo von Zeipel

== W ==
Wadati–Benioff zone (a.k.a. Benioff zone) – Kiyoo Wadati and Hugo Benioff
Wahlund effect – Sten Gösta William Wahlund
Wallace's line – Alfred Russel Wallace
Walras's law – Léon Walras
Wannier function, orbital – Gregory Wannier
Wasserman 9-Panel Plot – Karlman Wasserman
Wannier–Stark ladder (a.k.a. Stark ladder) – Gregory Wannier and Johannes Stark
Warburg effect – Otto Warburg
Waring's problem (a.k.a. Hilbert–Waring theorem) – Edward Waring (and David Hilbert)
Weber–Fechner law (Weber's law, Fechner's law) – Ernst Heinrich Weber and Gustav Theodor Fechner
Weberian apparatus – Ernst Heinrich Weber
Weierstrass–Casorati theorem – Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass and Felice Casorati
Weierstrass's elliptic functions, factorization theorem, function, M-test, preparation theorem – Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass
Wien bridge – Max Wien
Weissenberg effect – Karl Weissenberg
Wess–Zumino–Witten model – Julius Wess, Bruno Zumino and Edward Witten
Wess–Zumino model – Julius Wess, Bruno Zumino
Westermarck effect – Edvard Westermarck
Weston cell – Edward Weston
Wheatstone bridge – Charles Wheatstone (improved and popularized it; the inventor was Samuel Hunter Christie)
Whittaker function, integral, model – Edmund Taylor Whittaker
Whittaker–Shannon interpolation formula – Edmund Taylor Whittaker, John Macnaghten Whittaker, Claude Shannon
Widmanstätten pattern (a.k.a. Thomson structure) – Count Alois von Beckh Widmanstätten (or William (Guglielmo) Thomson)
Widom line – Benjamin Widom
Widrow–Hoff least mean squares filter – Bernard Widrow and Ted Hoff
Wiedemann–Franz law – Gustav Wiedemann and Rudolf Franz
Wiegand effect – John R. Wiegand
Wien bridge (Wien's bridge), constant, effect, law – Wilhelm Wien
Wiener filter, process – Norbert Wiener
Wigmore chart – John Henry Wigmore
Wigner energy, Wigner effect – Eugene Wigner
Wigner–Seitz cell – Eugene Wigner and Frederick Seitz
Wilson cycle – John Tuzo Wilson
Wilson effect – Alexander Wilson
Wilson–Bappu effect – Olin Chaddock Wilson and Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu
Witten index – Edward Witten
Wollaston prism – William Hyde Wollaston
Woodward–Hoffmann rules – Robert Burns Woodward and Roald Hoffmann
Wolf effect – Emil Wolf
Wulf bands – Oliver R. Wulf
Wulff–Dötz reaction – William Wulff and Karl Heinz Dötz

== Y ==
Yarkovsky effect – Ivan Osipovich Yarkovsky
YORP effect – Ivan Osipovich Yarkovsky, John A. O'Keefe, Vladimir Vyacheslavovich Radzievskii, and Stephen J. Paddack
Young diagram (a.k.a. Ferrers diagram), Young tableau – Alfred Young
Young's modulus – Thomas Young
Yule–Simpson effect (a.k.a. Simpson's paradox) – Edward H. Simpson and Udny Yule

== Z ==
Zeeman effect – Pieter Zeeman
Zeigarnik effect – Bluma Zeigarnik
Zener effect – Clarence Melvin Zener
Zeno effect – Zeno of Elea
Zipf's law – George K. Zipf
Zipf–Mandelbrot law (a.k.a. Pareto–Zipf law) – George K. Zipf and Benoît Mandelbrot (or Vilfredo Pareto)

== See also ==
Eponyms
Fields of science
List of eponymous laws
List of eponymous medical signs
List of scientists
Lists of etymologies
List of eponymous diseases
List of fluid flows named after people
List of hydrodynamic instabilities named after people
List of waves named after people
Scientific constants named after people
Scientific laws named after people

== References ==