Nobel Prize in Physics winners quiz (50 questions)
From the first prize in 1901 to the latest laureates: match the scientist to the discovery, and learn how each idea changed the world.
About this quiz: the people, prizes and dates were checked against official and reference sources, and the stories are retold in makekite's own words with the help of AI. If you spot a mistake, please tell us on the contact page.
50 multiple-choice questions, with the answer explained after each one.
Answer each question, see why, and beat your best score.
All 50 questions and answers
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- The very first Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901, went to Wilhelm Röntgen for discovering what?
- Radio waves
- The electron
- X-rays
- Radioactivity
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X-rays. Röntgen made his discovery in 1895 in Würzburg, studying electric current passing through a gas at very low pressure. He called the new rays 'X-rays' because they were unknown.
- In 1903 Henri Becquerel shared the physics prize with Pierre and Marie Curie. Becquerel's share was for discovering what?
- The neutron
- Cosmic rays
- X-rays
- Spontaneous radioactivity
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Spontaneous radioactivity. Becquerel was investigating the newly found X-rays when he noticed that uranium gave off rays by itself. The Curies were honoured for their research into the radiation he had discovered.
- Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and a second Nobel Prize in 1911. In which subject was the second?
- Medicine
- Literature
- Chemistry
- Peace
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Chemistry. She was the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes, according to the Nobel Prize website. After her husband Pierre died in 1906 she continued their work.
- J. J. Thomson, the 1906 winner, showed that cathode rays are made of tiny particles. What are those particles called?
- Neutrons
- Electrons
- Photons
- Protons
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Electrons. Thomson also concluded that electrons are part of atoms, which changed how people thought about what matter is made of.
- Guglielmo Marconi, born in Bologna, shared the 1909 prize for contributions to what?
- Wireless telegraphy
- Television
- Electric light
- The telephone
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Wireless telegraphy. Marconi's work helped signals travel through the air without wires. He shared the prize with the German physicist Ferdinand Braun.
- Heike Kamerlingh Onnes of the Netherlands won in 1913 for his research at very low temperatures. What did it lead to the production of?
- Frozen oxygen
- Dry ice
- Artificial snow
- Liquid helium
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Liquid helium. He worked at Leiden University. Cooling things almost to absolute zero opened up a whole new area of physics.
- William Lawrence Bragg won the 1915 prize with his father, and the Nobel Prize site calls him the youngest laureate at the time. How old was he?
- 19
- 40
- 31
- 25
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25. Father and son were honoured for using X-rays to work out the structure of crystals. The Nobel Prize site notes that he was later able to celebrate a golden jubilee as a laureate, which is very rare.
- Albert Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics (received in 1922) was awarded for the law of which effect?
- Gravitational lensing
- The photoelectric effect
- Time dilation
- The Doppler effect
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The photoelectric effect. Many people expect relativity, but the citation names his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect and his services to theoretical physics.
- Robert Millikan won in 1923 for his work on the elementary charge of electricity. What is the elementary charge?
- The mass of an atom
- The pull of gravity
- The electric charge carried by a single electron
- The speed of light
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The electric charge carried by a single electron. Millikan also won for his work on the photoelectric effect. His measurements helped show that electric charge comes in tiny, fixed amounts.
- Niels Bohr of Copenhagen won in 1922 for his services in investigating the structure of what?
- Stars
- Sound waves
- Crystals only
- Atoms
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Atoms. Bohr's model had electrons moving in fixed orbits around the nucleus. He was born in Copenhagen in 1885 and died there in 1962.
- Louis de Broglie won in 1929 for discovering that which particles also behave like waves?
- Magnets
- Sound waves
- Planets
- Electrons
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Electrons. His idea that matter has a wave nature became a cornerstone of quantum physics.
- Which Indian scientist won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the scattering of light, and gave his name to an effect?
- S. Chandrasekhar
- C. V. Raman
- Satyendra Nath Bose
- Homi Bhabha
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C. V. Raman. Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born in Tiruchirappalli and worked at Calcutta University. The citation honours his work on the scattering of light and the discovery of the effect named after him.
- Werner Heisenberg won in 1932 for the creation of quantum mechanics. Which famous principle did he propose in 1927?
- The equivalence principle
- The uncertainty principle
- Pascal's principle
- The exclusion principle
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The uncertainty principle. His 'uncertainty relation' sets limits on how precisely the position and velocity of a particle can be known at the same time.
- James Chadwick won in 1935 for discovering which particle in the nucleus of atoms?
- The neutron
- The electron
- The proton
- The positron
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The neutron. Earlier experiments with alpha particles hitting beryllium produced a strange radiation. Chadwick, at Liverpool University, showed that it was made of neutral particles.
- Victor Hess won in 1936 for discovering cosmic radiation. How did he measure it in 1912?
- With a rocket
- With a tunnel under the sea
- With instruments carried up in balloons
- With a telescope on a mountain
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With instruments carried up in balloons. He found that ionisation of the air first decreased and then increased at greater heights, so the radiation must come from space.
- Enrico Fermi, born in Rome, won in 1938 for work with which particles that produced new radioactive elements?
- Positrons
- Photons
- Neutrons
- Mesons
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Neutrons. The citation mentions new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and nuclear reactions caused by slow neutrons.
- Wolfgang Pauli won in 1945 for the discovery of which principle about electrons in atoms?
- The Equivalence Principle
- The Exclusion Principle
- The Uncertainty Principle
- The Correspondence Principle
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The Exclusion Principle. It explains why electrons in an atom cannot all crowd into the lowest energy level, which helps explain the structure of the periodic table.
- Hideki Yukawa of Japan won in 1949 for predicting the existence of what particles?
- Quarks
- Positrons
- Neutrinos
- Mesons
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Mesons. He predicted mesons from his theoretical work on nuclear forces. He was born in Tokyo and later worked at Kyoto and Columbia universities.
- John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton won in 1951 for pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei using what?
- Laser light
- Artificially accelerated atomic particles
- Ultrasound
- Radio waves
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Artificially accelerated atomic particles. They were honoured for pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated particles.
- In 1956 Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain shared the prize for the discovery of what device effect, found in semiconductors?
- The laser effect
- The transistor effect
- The Zeeman effect
- The Hall effect
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The transistor effect. Transistors amplify electric signals and replaced the bulky electron tubes in radios and telephones. They are the building blocks of modern electronics.
- Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee won in 1957 for investigating which kind of laws, which led to important discoveries about elementary particles?
- Conservation of energy
- Gas laws
- Gravity laws
- Parity laws
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Parity laws. Physicists had assumed that nature obeys the same laws in a 'mirror world' where left and right are reversed. Yang and Lee's investigation of parity laws led to important discoveries about elementary particles.
- Maria Goeppert Mayer shared the 1963 prize with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner. Her work was on the structure of what?
- The atomic nucleus
- The ozone layer
- The Milky Way
- Crystals of salt
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The atomic nucleus. The citation is for discoveries about nuclear shell structure. She was born in Katowice, then part of Germany.
- Charles Townes shared the 1964 prize for work that led to the maser and what other device?
- The radar
- The microscope
- The laser
- The transistor
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The laser. The citation describes fundamental work in quantum electronics that led to oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle.
- Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga won in 1965 for their work in which theory?
- General relativity
- Quantum electrodynamics
- String theory
- Plate tectonics
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Quantum electrodynamics. Tomonaga was born in Tokyo. The three worked independently on how light and electrons interact.
- Dennis Gabor, born in Budapest, won in 1971 for inventing what?
- Holography
- The digital camera
- The photocopier
- The CD player
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Holography. He invented and developed the holographic method, which can record and reproduce three-dimensional images using light.
- John Bardeen is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in Physics twice. What were the two years?
- 1965 and 1980
- 1903 and 1911
- 1956 and 1972
- 1921 and 1935
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1956 and 1972. The first prize was for the transistor effect, and the second for the BCS theory of superconductivity.
- Abdus Salam, born in Jhang in present-day Pakistan, shared the 1979 prize for the theory that unifies which two forces?
- Weak and electromagnetic forces
- Gravity and magnetism
- Strong and weak forces
- Electric and nuclear energy
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Weak and electromagnetic forces. At the time of the award he worked at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, and at Imperial College London.
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, born in Lahore, won in 1983 for his studies of the structure and evolution of what?
- Oceans
- Clouds
- Planets
- Stars
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Stars. He formulated theories of what happens to stars after they use up their hydrogen fuel. He later worked at the University of Chicago.
- Ernst Ruska shared the 1986 prize for the design of the first what?
- Electron microscope
- Radio telescope
- Particle accelerator
- Laser printer
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Electron microscope. Using beams of electrons instead of light let scientists see far smaller objects than an ordinary microscope allows.
- John Mather and George Smoot won in 2006 for studying the cosmic microwave background. What does this radiation provide evidence of?
- Life on Mars
- A remnant of the Big Bang
- Dark comets
- A giant black hole
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A remnant of the Big Bang. Their work showed the blackbody form and tiny variations of the background radiation, supporting the Big Bang model of the universe.
- Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg won in 2007 for discovering giant magnetoresistance. Which everyday device became much smaller thanks to it?
- Microwave ovens
- Television sets
- Car engines
- Computer hard drives
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Computer hard drives. GMR is used in read heads, which convert magnetically stored information into electric current.
- Charles Kao, born in Shanghai, won in 2009 for achievements in sending light through what, for communication?
- Radio towers
- Copper cables
- Optical fibres
- Satellite dishes
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Optical fibres. The citation honours his groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication.
- Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won in 2010 for experiments on which two-dimensional material?
- Diamond dust
- Carbon dioxide ice
- Graphene
- Silicon
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Graphene. In their work, flakes of graphite were pulled apart with sticky tape until a layer one atom thick was left.
- Brian Schmidt, who worked at the Australian National University, shared the 2011 prize for discovering that the expansion of the Universe is doing what?
- Accelerating
- Slowing down
- Reversing
- Stopping
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Accelerating. Schmidt, Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess studied distant exploding stars.
- François Englert and Peter Higgs won in 2013 for a mechanism that helps explain why particles have what?
- Colour
- Charge
- Mass
- Spin
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Mass. The predicted particle was found by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Englert was born in Etterbeek, Belgium.
- Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura won in 2014 for inventing efficient blue LEDs. What did this make possible?
- Stronger glass
- Bright, energy-saving white light
- Faster trains
- Cheaper batteries
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Bright, energy-saving white light. Blue light-emitting diodes allowed white light sources that use far less energy than older bulbs.
- Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald won in 2015 for discovering neutrino oscillations. What does this show about neutrinos?
- They have mass
- They are charged
- They travel faster than light
- They are made of quarks only
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They have mass. The citation says neutrino oscillations show that neutrinos have mass, which the older picture of particle physics had not expected.
- The 2017 prize went to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne for the LIGO detector. What did it observe?
- Cosmic strings
- Gravitational waves
- Dark matter particles
- Solar flares
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Gravitational waves. Weiss was born in Berlin. LIGO detects tiny ripples in space and time made by colliding black holes.
- Donna Strickland of Canada shared the 2018 prize for a method of generating very short, intense pulses of what?
- Sound
- Laser light
- Electricity
- Radio waves
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Laser light. She shared half of the prize with Gérard Mourou, and Arthur Ashkin received the other half.
- Roger Penrose won in 2020 for showing that the formation of what is a robust prediction of general relativity?
- Comets
- Neutron stars only
- Black holes
- Wormholes
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Black holes. He shared the prize with Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, who found a supermassive object at the centre of our galaxy.
- Anne L'Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz won in 2023 for methods that make pulses of light lasting an attosecond. What do they let us study?
- The motion of electrons
- The weather
- Sound in water
- The shape of galaxies
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The motion of electrons. An attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second, short enough to watch electrons move inside matter.
- John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton won in 2024 for discoveries that enable machine learning with what?
- Radio telescopes
- Artificial neural networks
- Quantum computers
- Genetic engineering
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Artificial neural networks. The prize honoured foundational discoveries and inventions behind much of today's artificial intelligence.
- The 2025 prize was shared by John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis for the discovery of macroscopic quantum tunnelling in what kind of system?
- A magnet at room temperature
- An electric circuit
- A black hole
- A sound wave
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An electric circuit. In quantum tunnelling, particles can pass through barriers that classical physics says they cannot. The three showed it happening on a scale large enough to hold in the hand.
- The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Francis Halzen for his contributions to which observatory?
- The Hubble Space Telescope
- The IceCube Neutrino Observatory
- The Large Hadron Collider
- The Square Kilometre Array
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The IceCube Neutrino Observatory. He was recognised for decisive contributions to IceCube and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.
- Max Planck won in 1918 for discovering energy quanta. Why are 'quanta' important?
- They proved space is curved
- They showed energy comes in tiny, separate packets
- They measured the speed of sound
- They explained magnetism
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They showed energy comes in tiny, separate packets. Planck's idea started quantum theory, the foundation for much of 20th-century physics.
- Lord Rayleigh won in 1904 partly for his discovery of which element in the air?
- Neon
- Oxygen
- Argon
- Helium
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Argon. The citation mentions his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and his discovery of argon.
- Clinton Davisson and George Paget Thomson won in 1937 for the diffraction of what by crystals?
- Neutrinos
- Electrons
- Radio waves
- Sound
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Electrons. One half of the prize went to Davisson, who worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York, and the other half to Thomson.
- How many times was the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded between 1901 and 2026, according to the Nobel Prize website?
- 126
- 231
- 120
- 100
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120. The site counts 120 prizes shared among 231 laureate awards. There are 230 individuals because John Bardeen won twice.
- Georges Charpak, who won in 1992, invented and developed what kind of instrument?
- Radio transmitters
- Particle detectors
- Telescopes
- Seismographs
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Particle detectors. He is credited with the multiwire proportional chamber, which sped up the way scientists detect and record particles.
- Max von Laue won in 1914 for discovering the diffraction of X-rays by what?
- Glass lenses only
- Water
- Crystals
- Magnetic fields
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Crystals. His discovery showed that X-rays are waves and that crystals have an orderly arrangement of atoms, which William Bragg and his father then used.