The list below shows the top 10 most frequently mentioned experiments by readers of Physics World.
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1 Young's double-slit experiment applied to the interference of single electrons
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2 Galileo's experiment on falling bodies (1600s)
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3 Millikan's oil-drop experiment (1910s)
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4 Newton's decomposition of sunlight with a prism (1665-1666)
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5 Young's light-interference experiment (1801)
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6 Cavendish's torsion-bar experiment (1798)
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7 Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference (3rd century BC)
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8 Galileo's experiments with rolling balls down inclined planes (1600s)
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9 Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus (1911)
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10 Foucault's pendulum (1851)
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Others experiments that were cited included:
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Archimedes' experiment on hydrostatics
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Roemer's observations of the speed of light
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Joule's paddle-wheel heat experiments
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Reynolds's pipe flow experiment
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Mach & Salcher's acoustic shock wave
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Michelson-Morley measurement of the null effect of the ether
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Röntgen's detection of Maxwell's displacement current
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Oersted's discovery of electromagnetism
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The Braggs' X-ray diffraction of salt crystals
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Eddington's measurement of the bending of starlight
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Stern-Gerlach demonstration of space quantization
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Schrödinger's cat thought experiment
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Trinity test of nuclear chain reaction
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Wu et al.'s measurement of parity violation
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Goldhaber's study of neutrino helicity
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Feynman dipping an O-ring in water
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