Physicists on the Money

Physicists have been honored by having their picture on currency in many countries around the world. Some are shown in small images below. Click on the colored text to view or down load a larger copy of the image. (The size of each image is shown in parentheses.)

Abu Nasr Al-Farabi (870-950) appears on the 1 Tenge note from Kazakhstan. A scholar in many areas, including philosophy, linguistics, logic, and music. He also wrote about the nature of science and argued for the existence of the vacuum (empty space).
For a brief bio click here. (26 K)

Kristian Birkeland (1867-1917) appears on the Norwegian 200 Kroner note. Birkeland was a pioneer in studying the magnetic field of the earth and the aurora borealis. He made the suggestion that the aurora were caused by charges emitted by the sun being guided into the earth's atmosphere by the earth's magnetic field. An apparatus of his simulating this effect is shown on the bill at the left. For a brief bio click here. For a great site on the aurora click here. (36 K)

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) appears on the Danish 500 Kroner note. Bohr was one of the main architects of the quantum theory, the basis of our understanding of the properties of matter. He created the first quantized model of the atom (the Bohr model) and played a major role in developing the modern interpretation of the quantum theory. For a brief bio click here. (46 K)

Ruggero Boscovich (1711-1787) appeared on a series of Croatian notes. (The 25 Dinar is shown here.) Boscovich made contributions to the theory of orbital mechanics and was one of the first to speculate about the forces between atoms. For a brief bio, click here. (30 K)