Quirino Majorana

Quirino Majorana (* 1871, † 1957) was an Italian experimental physicist. In his long career as a professor of physics at the University of Rome, the Politecnico di Torino (1916-1921), and the University of Bologna (1921-1934), he investigated many phenomena from different branches of physics.

Work

Quirino Majorana undertook a series of very accurate experiments to shield the gravitational 1918-1922. Majorana's experiments showed his view that mercury and lead act as a shield and the earth's gravity can weaken slightly. However, his result today could not be reproduced (where an exact reproduction of the exact experimental setup of Majorana but so far does not exist ). It has also been argued that a possible shielding, if it exists, must be several orders of magnitude smaller than Majorana has measured it, else there would be conflicts with various astronomical facts. According to current knowledge, any shielding of the gravitational contradicts the equivalence principle of general relativity by Albert Einstein, which has so far been confirmed in all experiments.

Majorana was skeptical about the special theory of relativity and tried 1918-1919, to refute the postulate of the constancy of the speed of light. This he was not able, which meant that his experiments on a support of SRT were. Majorana also confirmed Newton's law of gravity with great accuracy.

In later works in Bologna, he was influenced by the correspondence with his nephew Ettore Majorana.