Werner HEISENBERG

1996/11/01 Kaltzada, Pili - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biografiak

This German physicist joined the world of Würzburg in 1901. Although from a young age his father encouraged him to the humanities, he was immediately highlighted by his tendency to physics and chemistry. At the age of twenty-two he earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Munich. He had Sommerfeld and Bohr as professors and had the opportunity to know the theories of both researchers. Bohr investigated the internal structure of the atom to determine the position of the spectrum lines. Heisenberg, however, believed that these lines are only in the imagination, so he focused on observing reality as the main line of research.

He did not completely rule out the study of spectral lines. On the contrary, it focused mainly on the mathematical model which can explain these lines. In 1927 he proposed matrix mechanics for it, but a few months later the equation of wavy mechanics that the Austrian Schrodinger had launched was more echo than the Heisenberg model.

In 1927 he postulated the principle of uncertainty, one of the pillars of quantum mechanics. This means that the position and timing of a particle cannot be known at the same time with total certainty. To know exactly where the particle is, the observer must get the particle to interact with a photon of small wavelength, but being this a high-energy photon, the interaction increases the velocity of the particle. However, the use of small energy photons reduces the accuracy of the position due to the longer wavelength of the photon. The principle of uncertainty gave Heisenberg fame and in 1932 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

During World War II, the German government left Heisenberg's study of the atomic bomb. However, the War ended before the exams ended and Heisenberg settled in western Germany, being director of the Max Planck Institute of Gottingen. In 1955 he wrote a book entitled The Image of Nature in Present-day Physics.

He died in Munich at the age of 75.