Werner Heisenberg, born in the dawn of the twentieth century became one of its greatest physicists; he is also among its most controversial. While still in his early twenties, he was among the handful of bright, young men who created quantum mechanics, the basic physics of the atom, and he became a leader of nuclear physics and elementary particle research. He is best known for his uncertainty principle, a component of the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of the meaning, and uses of quantum mechanics.

Through his successful life, he lived through two lost World Wars, Soviet Revolution, military occupation, two republics, political unrest, and Hitler’s Third Reich. He was not a Nazi, and like most scientists of his day he tried not to become involved in politics. He played a prominent role in German nuclear testing during the World War II era. At age twenty-five he received a full professorship and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 at the age of thirty-two. He climbed quickly to the top of his field beginning at the University of Munich when his interest in theoretical physics was sparked Heisenberg was born the son of August Heisenberg in Würzburg, Germany on D

Sommerfeld accepted a guest professorship at the University of Wisconsin the second year that Heisenberg attended the University of Munich. With his mentor in the United States, Werner decided to travel to Götingen to study with Professor Born. While in Götingen, his parents supported him monetarily while he experienced much more knowledge in the field of theoretical physics. After a while he was offered a job as an assistant with a generous salary of twenty-thousand marks a month. As an example of inflation and political unrest inflation had brought the average wage of a skilled worker twenty years prior from a little over one-thousand marks a year to twenty-thousand a month for a professor’s assistant. In May 1923, Professor Sommerfeld returned to the University of Munich and so did Heisenberg. During Heisenberg’s time in Götingen Born and Heisenberg did extensive studies on the helium atom. This research yielded a strictly orthodox helium calculation that gained widespread recognition which was the beginning of the end for the earlier successful Bohr-Sommerfeld quantum theory of the atom. They modeled this research off of the Balmer formula for the case of the outer helium electron and treated the excited helium electron the same as a hydrogen electron. After a very successful three years of study at the University of Munich, Heisenberg prepared for his oral examination for his doctorate. The format had four professors to ask four questions on three subjects. These subjects were Math, Astronomy, and Physics. The physics department at the University of Munich was split between experimental physics and theoretical physics and therefore he would be asked two physics questions and would only receive one grade in which both professors would have to agree on. In math Perron gave him a I for his explanation of the mathematical question. Seeliger asked the astronomical question that he received a II. For physics, Sommerfeld, head of theoretical physics, gave Heisenberg a I and Wein, head of experimental physics, gave him a V which is not passing. Heisenberg had had a confrontation with Wein the previous semester when he made his final project for the class out of cigar boxes and cardboard. During the final examination he was biased in his question as well as his grade. The average of his physics score became a III which was fairly disappointing. The final score for Heisenberg’s oral examination was a III which is equaled to a ‘C’ in the American grading system. August Heisenberg was troubled by Werner’s low score and wondered if physics was the correct field for him to be in. Werner shocked by his surprising score and caught a late train to Götingen. The next morning he appeared in Born’s office. When he left Götingen he was promised a job the next winter, in Born’s office Heisenberg asked if the job was still out on the table because of his low score on his examination. Born asked what Wein’s question was and they went over it together. Born said that it was a very tricky question and that he could understand his answer.

ecember 5, 1901. August Heisenberg was a professor of Greek at the University of Munich. His grandfather was a middle-class craftsman who’s hard work paid enough to afford a good education for August Heisenberg. The successfulness of August Heisenberg allowed him to support his family well. The professorship at the University of Munich put them in the upper middle-class elite, and was paid three times the salary of skilled workers.

On March 22, 1927, Heisenberg submitted a paper to the "Zeitschrift für Physik" entitled "On the perceptual content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics" This twenty-seven page paper forwarded from Copenhagen contained Heisenberg’s most famous and far-ranging achievement in physics, his formulation of the uncertainty or indeterminacy principle in quantum mechanics. This uncertainty principle formed a fundamental component of the Copenhagen inte

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