Experiment and Historical Index

This index collects compact historical and experimental reference cards. Each entry separates what was measured, what the result supported, how it is read in modern quantum mechanics, and what it did not show by itself.

The goal is lookup discipline. These pages do not replace a full historical narrative, an apparatus paper, or a laboratory manual. They give enough context to stop common myths and route readers to the formal pages where the mathematics belongs.

Foundational and Early Quantum Milestones

• Blackbody Radiation
• Photoelectric Effect
• Atomic Spectra
• Franck–Hertz Experiment
• Stern–Gerlach Experiment
• Davisson–Germer Experiment
• Double-Slit Experiment
• Compton Scattering

Later Quantum Tests and Many-Body Milestones

• Bell Tests
• Quantum Hall Discovery
• Bose–Einstein Condensation

Reading Rule

Historical experiments rarely demonstrate a full modern theorem in isolation. Use the following separation:

• what was directly measured;
• what theoretical alternatives were under pressure at the time;
• what modern quantum mechanics uses as the clean formal lesson;
• what extra assumptions or later experiments are needed;
• what popular simplification should be avoided.

Cross-Links

• From Experiments to Formalism
• Probability Amplitudes
• Measurement in the Formalism
• Spin-1/2 Hilbert Space
• Hydrogen Spectrum
• Landau Levels
• CHSH Inequality

References

• M. Jammer, The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics, 2nd ed., American Institute of Physics, 1989.
• J. Mehra and H. Rechenberg, The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, Springer, 1982-2001.
• M. Planck, “Ueber das Gesetz der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum,” Annalen der Physik 4, 553-563, 1901.
• A. Einstein, “Ueber einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt,” Annalen der Physik 17, 132-148, 1905.
• J. S. Bell, “On the Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox,” Physics 1, 195-200, 1964.