Heisenberg:
Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901 in the city of Würzburg in the southern German principality of Bavaria. His parents, Dr. August Heisenberg and Anna (Annie) Heisenberg, married in 1899 after Anna converted from Catholicism to August's Lutheran faith. August was a professor of middle and Modern Greek philology at the University of Munich; Annie was the daughter of a Gymnasium principal and an authority on Greek tragedy. Werner was their second son. Their first son, Erwin, was born in 1900 and later became a chemist.
In 1910, when Werner was eight years old, his father was appointed professor of medieval and Modern Greek studies at the University of Munich. Werner moved with his family to Munich, where they settled in the cultural section of Schwanbing. In September 1911 Werner entered the Maximilians-Gymnasium, where his maternal grandfather was principal. A Gymnasium was a nine-year school that prepared students to enter a university before going on to professional careers, such as medicine, law, or academics.
After graduating, at the top of his class, Heisenberg went to the University of Munich in 1920. There, Heisenberg studied Einstein’s theory of relativity entirely on his own, but he was less interested in the physics than in pure mathematics. He taught himself calculus simultaneously as he was tutoring a college student for her final exams. During his final oral exams before graduation, Heisenberg gave a demonstration of what he could do by solving the equations of projectile motion with air resistance taken into account. The examiner wrote, “he makes use of infinitesimal calculus and proves that he has already gone far beyond the goal of middle school mathematics.”
From the very start of Heisenberg’s University career, he demonstrated talents for atomic physics and also demonstrated his ability to leap to the solution of a problem that others were unable to solve. In most cases, however, his solution required the violation of accepted principles and procedures that were later found to be acceptable after all. This was evident in his first paper published as early as 1922.
Gradually, Werner learned to follow physics principles more closely and to apply sophisticated mathematical methods to calculate the hypothetical orbits of electrons in atoms according to the “old quantum theory.” Heisenberg predicted from the calculations that they did not agree with existing experimental data. The old quantum theory had failed, but now Heisenberg and his colleagues saw exactly where it failed, and they gained hints for how it may be fixed.
Heisenberg received his doctorate in 1923 from the University of Munich. He only achieved a “C” passing grade when writing his dissertation for his doctorate. Werner’s grade was biased because he talked about theoretical physics instead of experimental physics, which was not accepted in those days.
The leading theory of the atom when Heisenberg entered the University of Munich in 1920 was the quantum theory established by Bohr, Sommerfeld, and their co-workers. Although the theory had been highly successful in certain situations during the early 1920s, three areas of research indicated that the theory was inadequate. When Heisenberg found out about this, he set himself the task of finding new quantum mechanics. In April 1925, Heisenberg started the intensive struggle over the following months to achieve his goal.
Since the electron orbits in atoms could not be observed, Werner tried to develop a quantum mechanics without them. He relied, instead, on what can be observed, namely the light emitted and absorbed by the atoms. By July 1925 Heisenberg had an answer, but the mathematics was so unfamiliar that he was not sure if it made any sense. Heisenberg handed the paper on the derivation to his mentor, Max Born. After puzzling over the pure mathematics, Born finally recognized that the unfamiliar formula was related to the mathematics of arrays known as matrices. Born sent Heisenberg’s paper off for publication. It was the most important breakthrough to quantum mechanics and the creation of matrix mechanics!
Most physicists were slow to accept “matrix mechanics” because of the abstract nature and unfamiliar math. In 1926, a physicist named Schrödinger developed an alternative to Heisenberg’s methods using more familiar formulas and equations. Schrödinger was the creator of wave mechanics. In May of that same year, Schrödinger published a proof that matrix and wave mechanics gave equivalent results. His paper argued about the superiority of wave mechanics, which became the new median. At this point in history, Heisenberg’s parents were pushing him to capture a vacant job at the local university because, at the same time, his best work, matrix mechanics seemed to be overshadowed.
After refusing his parents pick, Werner began a new task, as Niels Bohr’s assistant in Copenhagen, where, again, Schrödinger came to debate his new findings to Bohr. What Bohr proved was that neither theory was satisfactory. With this finding in the open, Heisenberg and Schrödinger both began a new interpretation of quantum mechanics and eventually developed what is quantum mechanics today. “The more I think about the physical portion of Schrödinger's theory, the more repulsive I find it...What Schrödinger writes about the visualizability of his theory 'is probably not quite right,' in other words it's crap.” – Heisenberg, 1926
In 1927, Heisenberg discovered a problem in the way one could measure basic physical variables appearing in the equations. His analysis showed that uncertainties or impressions always turned up if one tried to measure the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. Thus, Heisenberg came up with the Uncertainty Principle. “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known at this instant, and vice versa.” – Heisenberg, uncertainty paper 1927.
The preceding is a succinct statement of the “uncertainty relation” between the momentum (mass times velocity) of a subatomic particle and its relative position. Because of the scientific and philosophical implications of the seemingly harmless sounding principle, modern physicists speak of the “principle of indeterminacy.”
Only 25 years old in October 1927, Werner Karl Heisenberg accepted the job as professor of theoretical physics at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Heisenberg headed this section of physics until 1936. Before then, however, Heisenberg had difficult years. Hitler came to power in 1933, but that same year Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the year 1932. During Hitler’s reign most physicists were charged with being pro Judaism in Germany, for unknown reasons. During this time Heisenberg left his job at the university, got married, and had children. The following years Heisenberg took up Fission Research until the end of the “war era.”
Once the war was over in 1945, Heisenberg held various engagements for different organizations. These “jobs” helped Werner support his seven children and feed his glorious mind. During 1958, Heisenberg still continued to develop theories on quantum mechanics, which were never formulated. After this year, Heisenberg stepped out of the “lime light” and lived comfortably until 1976, when cancer overtook his body at his Munich home - February 1st.
Werner Karl Heisenberg became a great man, not by luck, but by pure genius and by some guesswork. He shaped the way modern mechanics of all sorts is used today. Without his “uncertainty” we may never have calculated subatomic particles. He was on the forefront of knowledge, and even from an early age his teachers knew he was destined for greatness. We should not forget him.
AJ Klatch Mr. Edmondson
September 14, 2000
Honors Chemistry I – 2/3
Molly Close, Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. June 1999
<http://www.honors.unr.edu/~fenimore/wt202/close>
Nobel Lectures. Biography of W. Heisenberg. 4 July 2000
<http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1932/heisenberg-bio.html>
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Heisenberg, Warner.
<http://britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,109223+1,00.html>
J J O'Connor and E F Robertson. Heisenberg. December 1996
<http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Heisenberg.html>
Heisenberg, Werner. The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory. 1950.