Heinrich Magnus

Today is the birthday of chemist and physicist Heinrich Gustav Magnus, born in Berlin in 1802. He studied at the University of Berlin and became assistant professor there in 1834. Magnus was renowned for his teaching and particularly his impressive experimental demonstrations, using a suite of sophisticated lab equipment that he purchased with his own money. He discovered novel compounds including one with a chain of platinum atoms named Magnus’s green salt. Today Magnus’s name comes up most often in sports. In 1853 he demonstrated that a spinning sphere or cylinder curves as it moves through a fluid (such as air). The spin of the object drags air and thus creates pressure differences; the object moves toward the area of lower pressure. This Magnus effect (also known as Magnus force) is responsible for the break of a curveball in baseball and the dip of a tennis ball with topspin.

Date in History: 2 May 1802