Heisenberg, Werner (Karl) (1901-76)

Heisenberg, Werner (Karl) (1901-76)


 

Theoretical physicist, born in Würzburg, Germany. He studied at Munich and Göttingen. After a brief period working with Max Born (1923) and Niels Bohr (1924-7), he became professor of physics at Leipzig (1927-41), director of the Max Planck Institute in Berlin (1941-5), and director of the Max Planck Institute at Göttingen (and from 1958 at Munich). He developed a method of expressing quantum mechanics in matrices (1925), and formulated his revolutionary principle of indeterminacy (the uncertainty principle) in 1927. He was awarded the 1932 Novel Prize for Physics.


An interesting (although seemingly incomplete) discussion of the uncertainty principle
To get an idea of the massive impact Heisenberg's uncertainty principle has had, consider how it is being invoked in more modern discussions of Quantum Physics and Ordinary Consciousness
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