Scottish physicist and gunnery expert, considered a founder of the science of ballistics. His pioneering research on fired gunpowder, often in conjunction with the British chemist Frederick Abel, contributed greatly to the progress of gunnery.

Noble was educated at Edinburgh Academy and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, London, and then entered the Royal Artillery in 1849. During the 1850s, in a study of the relative merits of smoothbore and rifled cannon, he devised a method of comparing their accuracy of fire. He became assistant inspector of artillery in 1859 but later left the service to join the engineering and ordnance firm of Sir William (later Lord) Armstrong, of which he became chairman in 1900.

About 1862 he applied his invention, the chronoscope, a device for measuring very small time intervals, to determine the velocity of shot in gun barrels. His experiments helped establish the science of ballistics and also led to new types of gunpowder, the redesigning of guns, and new methods of loading. Noble was elected a fellow of the Royal Society (1870), knighted (1893), and created a baronet (1902).