Physicists and astronomers

K

Kammerlingh Onnes, Heike 1853-1926
Nobel Prize for Physics in 1913 for his work on low temperatures. Discovered superconductors.

Kapitza, Pyotr Leonidovich 1894- 1984
Russian physicist. Work on low temperatures and especially the superfluidity of liquid helium.

Kater , Captain Henry 1777-1835
British army officer. Kater's compound pendulum

Kepler, Johannes 1571- 1630
Pupil of Tycho (see Tycho). Developed Kepler's three laws of planetary motion. He was the son of poor peasants and had a difficult and hard life. He thought that the planets were held in orbit round the Sun by a magnetic force.

Kerr, John 1824-1907
British physicist. Invented the electro-optic shutter. Kerr effect. Kerr cell to measure the speed of light.

Kirchoff, Gustav Robert 1824-1887
German physicist. Laws of electrical conduction in networks. Laws of emission and absorption of radiation. Discovered the elements rubidium and caesium (1861). Explained the Fraunhofer lines in the spectrum of the Sun.

Kundt, August Adolph 1839-1894
German physicist. Developed the dust tube to show standing sound waves.