Abstract
Werner Heisenberg, co-discoverer of quantum mechanics, was born on December 5, 1901, in Würzburg, Germany, the second son in a scholarly family. His father, August Heisenberg, initially taught at a gymnasium but after his Habilitation was appointed Professor of Greek Philology at the University of Munich in 1911. Werner’s teachers in Munich made observations about the 10-year-old which seem prescient today (but which probably characterize bright children everywhere): “He has an eye for what is essential and never gets lost in details…great interest and thoroughness, and ambition.” Heisenberg excelled over the other boys at skiing and chess.
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References
Biographic information can be found in Armin Hermann’s Werner Heisenberg 1901–1976 (1976)
Elisabeth Heisenberg’s Inner Exile: Recollections of a Life with Werner Heisenberg (1980)
David Cassidy’s Uncertainty: the Life and Times of Werner Heisenberg (1992).
Quote on Bohr: in Rozental, S., ed. (1967), p. 95. The thesis-defense reminiscence is from an interview by Thomas Kuhn (Sources for the History of Quantum Physics, Interview 3.)
Heisenberg’s remarkable first paper appeared in Z. fÜr Phys. 33 (1925), 879;
B.L. van der Waerden (ed.) Sources of Quantum Mechanics (1967).
Heisenberg’s memoirs and other writings contain many insights into his character and views; in particular see Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1962);
Heisenberg’s The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (1970);
Heisenberg’s Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (1971).
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© 1995 Birkhäuser Boston
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Wick, D. (1995). Revolution, Part I Heisensberg’s Matrices. In: The Infamous Boundary. Birkhäuser Boston. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5361-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5361-7_3
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