Werner Heisenberg

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 5 Dec 1901
Died 1 Feb 1976
Activity 1921-1976

Places

Born in Germany
Active in Germany

Activities

Primary

Physicist

Resources

Heisenberg's Works

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Werner Heisenberg was born in Würzburg in 1901 and studied physics at the University of Munich before moving to Copenhagen to work with Niels Bohr who was studying sub-atomic structures. In 1925 he published his seminal paper "Uber quantumtheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen" ["About the Quantum-Theoretical Reinterpretation of Kinetic and Mechanical Relationships"] in which he developed the basic theoretical assumptions of what was to become known as "quantum mechanics". In essence this theory dispensed with the assumption that sub-atomic matter consisted of such things as electons spinning around nuclei like moons around a planet, and put in its place what the sub-atomic scientist knows to exist -- that at a certain point in space there is something which…

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206 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Werner Heisenberg". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2000 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2069, accessed 22 November 2024.]