Werner Heisenberg and the Beginning of Nuclear Physics

NOV 01, 1985

The advent of quantum mechanics caused a greater transformation in the understanding of physical reality of microscopic phenomena than the change in the understanding of macroscopic phenomena brought about by relativity.

DOI: 10.1063/1.880993

Arthur I. Miller

Great advances in science alter our view of the world. Galileo Galilei’s theory of motion, Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity and Werner Heisenberg’s invention of quantum mechanics, with its subsequent interpretation by Niels Bohr and Heisenberg himself, spring immediately to mind (figure 1). In exploring these episodes we must recognize that historical narrative without investigation of conceptual transformation is just chronology.

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More about the Authors

Arthur I. Miller. University of Lowell.