A higher resolution microscope would require higher energy light, giving an even bigger kick to the electron.
The high-energy photon used to illuminate the electron would give it a kick, changing its momentum in an uncertain way. He considered trying to measure the position of an electron with a gamma ray microscope. Heisenberg conducted a thought experiment as well. In matrix mathematics, it is not always the case that a x b = b x a, and for pairs of variables that don’t commute, such as position and momentum, or energy and time, an uncertainty relation arises. Though others may have found the wave approach easier to use, Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics led him naturally to the uncertainty principle for which he is well known. The unpopularity of his own method annoyed Heisenberg, especially because a lot was at stake at the time as he and other young scientists were beginning to look for their first jobs as professors as an older generation of scientists was retiring. Schrödinger’s wave formulation, which he soon proved was mathematically equivalent to Heisenberg’s matrix methods, became the more popular approach, partly because physicists were more comfortable with it than with the unfamiliar matrix mathematics. The absolute square of Schrödinger’s wave function was soon interpreted as the probability of finding a particle in a certain state. Shortly after Heisenberg came up with his matrix-based quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger developed his wave formulation. The new formulation accounted for many observed properties of atoms. Max Born identified the strange math in Heisenberg’s method as matrices. Basically, he took quantities such as position and velocity, and found a new way to represent and manipulate them. With help and inspiration from several colleagues, Heisenberg developed a new approach to quantum mechanics. Starting in 1925, Heisenberg set to work trying to come up with a quantum mechanics that relied only on properties that could, at least in theory, be observed. One could only observe the spectrum of light emitted or absorbed by atoms. Heisenberg objected to the current model because he claimed that since one couldn’t actually observe the orbit of electrons around a nucleus, such orbits couldn’t really be said to exist. Physicists realized a new theory was necessary. The model worked well for hydrogen, but ran into problems with larger atoms and with molecules. Electrons could move to higher or lower energy by absorbing or emitting a photon of the right wavelength.
The prevailing quantum theory in the early 1920s modeled the atom as having electrons in fixed quantized orbits around a nucleus.
After receiving his doctorate, he worked as an assistant to Max Born at Göttingen, then spent a year working with Niels Bohr at his institute in Copenhagen. He earned his doctorate in 1923, with a thesis on a problem in hydrodynamics, though he nearly failed due to his poor performance on the required experimental questions on the oral examination.
HEISENBERG PRINCIPLE PROFESSIONAL
Heisenberg became professional friends with Wolfgang Pauli, who was just one year older than Heisenberg and also a student at Munich. In 1920 he began studies at the University of Munich, and published four physics papers within two years under the guidance of mentor Arnold Sommerfeld. He liked mathematics and technical gadgets as a boy, and his teachers considered him gifted. Werner Heisenberg was born in December 1901 in Germany, into an upper-middle-class academic family. In February 1927, the young Werner Heisenberg developed a key piece of quantum theory, the uncertainty principle, with profound implications. February 1927: Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
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