Physicists and astronomers

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Newcomen, Thomas 1663-1729
British engineer. Invented of the steam engine in 1698.

Newton, Sir Isaac 1642-1727
English scientist. Author of Principia (1687) (mechanics) and Optiks (1704) (optics). Studied the visible spectrum. Developed the Particle theory of light. Proposed the theory of Universal Gravitation. Invented differential and integral calculus. Devised Newton's Laws of motion. He analysed the problem of dispersion and it was this that led him to develop the first reflecting telescope. In 1698 he became Master of the Royal Mint.

Oersted, Hans Christian 1757-1851
Danish physicist. Deflection of compass needle by the magnetic field of an electric current. Discovered that an electric current produces a magnetic field.

Ohm, George Simon 1787-1854
German physicist who discovered Ohm's law. Equation for resistance

Olbers, Heinrich 1758-1840
German astronomer and physician. Olbers paradox . Discovered the second and third asteroids. Devised a method for calculating the orbits of comets (1797). One of 1815 named after him (period 72.7 years).

Oppenheimer, Robert 1904-1967
American physicist. Leader of the Manhattan project that developed the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in the Alamagordo desert in new Mexico in 1945.