History of Physics and Astronomy

This version sorts the important events by name. The lifetimes of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

I-J

Ice blocks rubbed together gives heat energy - Davy 1799
Image of a quasar doubled by gravitational lensing 1979
Impossibility of observation of contraction - Terrell 1959
Inductance – self and mutual – Henry 1829
Inflationary early universe – Alan Guth 1981
Infra red – Lummer and Pringsheim 1897
Infra red radiation - Herschel 1800
Ingen Hauz 1730-1799
Interference first mentioned by Young 1799
Interference – rediscovered by Fresnel 1815
Interference fringes – surface map of a material - Laurent 1886
Interferometer – Fabry-Perot 1897
Internal combustion engine 1860
Inverse square law for force between electric charges – Joseph Priestley 1766
Inverse square law for magnetic fields – John Michell 1750
Inverse square law of gravity – Robert Hooke 1678
Ion drive spacecraft launched to the Moon 2003
Ionosphere detected by reflected radio waves - Appleton 1925
Iron Smelting 1400 BC
Island universes proposed - Kant 1755
Isotopes – Soddy 1913
Isotopes of oxygen discovered in nature 1929
Isotope separation - Urey 1940

James Black – fluid theory of heat 1728-1799
Jansky 1905- 1950
Jet aircraft – first British jet aircraft flew 1941
Jodrell Bank – 250' radio telescope 1957
Joly differential steam calorimeter 1886
Josephson junction 1962
Joule 1818-1889
Joule-Kelvin experiment 1845
Joule-Thompson effect 1852
Jupiter's satellites discovered – Galileo 1610
Jupiter – 12th satellite discovered 1952
Jupiter fly-by by Voyagers 1 and 2 1979