---
title: "List of experiments"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_experiments"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:39:13.283511+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Inclined plane experiment (1602–07): Galileo Galilei uses rolling balls to disprove the Aristotelian theory of motion.
Atmospheric pressure vs. altitude experiment (1648): Blaise Pascal carries a barometer up a church tower and a mountain to determine that atmospheric pressure is due to a column of air.
Magdeburg hemispheres (1654): Otto von Guericke demonstrates atmospheric pressure using a pair of hollow copper hemisphere.
Spring of air experiment (1660): Robert Boyle shows that the volume of a given amount of gas is inversely related to the pressure upon it.
Kite experiment (1700s): Benjamin Franklin beginning in 1747 describes experiments in letters to Peter Collinson demonstrating electrical principles which were published in a book called Experiments and Observations on Electricity.
Voltaic pile (1796): Alessandro Volta constructs a new source of electricity, the electrical battery.
Cavendish experiment (1798): Henry Cavendish's torsion bar experiment measures the force of gravity in a laboratory.
Double-slit experiment (c.1805): Thomas Young shows that light is a wave in his double-slit experiment.
Arago spot (1819): Observation of circular diffraction by François Arago, validated a new wave theory of light by Augustin-Jean Fresnel disproving skeptics like Siméon Denis Poisson.
Ørsted experiment (1820): Hans Christian Ørsted demonstrates the connection of electricity and magnetism by experiments involving a compass and electric circuits.
Discovery of electromagnetic induction (1831): Michael Faraday discovers magnetic induction in an experiment with a closed ring of soft iron, with two windings of wire.
Joule's experiment (1834):James Prescott Joule demonstrates the mechanical equivalent of heat, an important step in the development of thermodynamics.
Doppler experiment (1845): Christian Doppler arranges to have trumpets played from a passing train. The ground-observed pitch was higher than that played when the train was approaching then lower than that played as the train passed and moved away, demonstrating the Doppler effect.
Foucault pendulum (1851): Léon Foucault's creates a pendulum to demonstrate the Coriolis effect and the rotation of the Earth.
Michelson–Morley experiment (1887): exposes weaknesses of the prevailing variant of the theory of luminiferous aether.
Hertz wireless experiments (1887): Heinrich Hertz demonstrates free space electromagnetic waves, predicted by Maxwell's equations, with a simple dipole antenna and spark gap oscillator.
Thomson's experiments with cathode rays (1897): J. J. Thomson's cathode ray tube experiments (discovers the electron and its negative charge).
Eötvös experiment (1909): Loránd Eötvös publishes the result of the second series of experiments, clearly demonstrating that inertial and gravitational mass are one and the same.
Oil-drop experiment (1909): Robert Millikan demonstrates that electric charge occurs as quanta (whole units).
Geiger–Marsden experiments (1911): Ernest Rutherford's gold foil experiment demonstrated that the positive charge and mass of an atom is concentrated in a small, central atomic nucleus, disproving the then-popular plum pudding model of the atom.

Eddington experiment (1919): Arthur Eddington leads an expedition to the island of Principe to observe a total solar eclipse (gravitational lensing). This allows for an observation of the bending of starlight under gravity, a prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. It was confirmed (although it was later shown that the margin of error was as great as the observed bending).
Stern–Gerlach experiment (1920): Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach demonstrates particle spin.
Chicago Pile-1 (1942): Enrico Fermi and Leó Szilárd build the first critical nuclear reactor (1942)
Wu experiment (1956): Chien-Shiung Wu leads the team that disproves the conservation of parity in particle physics.
Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment (1955): Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines confirm the existence of the neutrino.
Hafele-Keating experiment (1971): Joseph C. Hafele and Richard E. Keating show that atomic clocks flown around the world exhibit differences which are consistent with the predictions of special and general relativity.
Scout rocket experiment (1976): confirms the time dilation effect of gravity.
Aspect's experiment (1982): Alain Aspect demonstrates the violation of Bell inequalities in quantum entanglement in the 1980s.

== Psychology ==

Ivan Pavlov's experiments with dogs and classical conditioning (1900s).
John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner conduct the Little Albert experiment showing evidence of classical conditioning (1920)
The Asch conformity experiments shows how group pressure can persuade an individual to conform to an obviously wrong opinion (1951)
B. F. Skinner's demonstrations of operant conditioning (1930s–1960s)
Harry Harlow's experiments with baby monkeys and wire and cloth surrogate mothers (1957–1974)
Stanley Milgram's experiments on human obedience (1963)
Walter Mischel's marshmallow experiment showing the importance to life outcomes of the ability to delay gratification (beginning late 1960s)
Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment (1971)
Allan and Beatrix Gardner's attempts to teach American Sign Language to the chimpanzee Washoe (1970s)
Martin Seligman studies learned helplessness in dogs (1970s)
Rosenhan experiment (1972). It involved the use of healthy associates or "pseudopatients", who briefly simulated auditory hallucinations in an attempt to gain admission to 12 different psychiatric hospitals. The hospital staff failed to detect a single pseudopatient. The study is considered an important and influential criticism of psychiatric diagnosis.
Kansas City preventive patrol experiment (1972–1973) It was designed to test the assumption that the presence (or potential presence) of police officers in marked cars reduced the likelihood of a crime being committed. No relationship was found.
Elizabeth Loftus' and John C. Palmer's car crash experiment shows that leading questions can produce false memories (1974)
Benjamin Libet's experiment on free will shows that a readiness potential appears before the notion of doing the task enters conscious experience, sparking debate about the illusory nature of free will yet again. (1983)
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran's experiment on phantom limbs with the Mirror Box throw light on the nature of 'learned paralysis' (1998)

== See also ==
List of thought experiments
Timeline of scientific experiments

== References ==