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Intro
Werner Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum theory (the theory of microscopic world atoms and their properties). He also became one of the principal scientists that lead the Nazi German nuclear energy project. (continued in Assignment post) -
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Heisenberg's Life
Werner Heisenberg Biography Video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc6Se8UXWq8) -
University of Munich
Heisenberg received Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Munich studying under notable instructors: Arnold Sommerfeld, Wilhelm Wien, Max Born, James Franck and David Hilbert. -
Albert Einstein
In 1925, after meeting and speaking with Albert Einstein, where Einstein would continuously disrupte Heisenberg’s assumptions that theories should only have observable quantities. Einstein explained “Only the theory decides what one can observe”. Heisenberg would be credited (a year later) for the assertion of the uncertainty principle (for position and momentum), due to this conversation (Hilgevoord and Uffink, NP). -
The Nobel Prize in Physics
Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics ‘‘for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has led, among other things to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen’’ (a concession to the prevalent requirement of a specific, practical contribution) (Lustig, 477). -
Nuclear Theory
Heisenberg would stun his colleagues with the first contemporary nuclear theory— a quantum mechanics of the nucleus that laid the foundations of nuclear physics as it has been practiced ever since (Cassidy, 200). -
References: p1
-Lustig, Harry. “The Life and Times of Werner Heisenberg.” Physics in Perspective, vol. 12, no. 4, Dec. 2010, pp. 470–496. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s00016-010-0034-5.
-Cassidy, David C. "Beyond Uncertainty:" Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and The Bomb, Bellevue Literary Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=618947. -
References: p2
-Hilgevoord, Jan and Uffink, Jos, "The Uncertainty Principle", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/qt-uncertainty/.
