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| Carl Sagan's COSMOS is one of the most influential science programs ever made.
Q. Does the moon have a dark side?
A. The moon does have a far side which is impossible to see from the earth, but it doesn't mean that it's always dark. Each side of the moon is dark for no longer than 15 days at a time.
Q. Where does sound come from?
A. The air is always filled with sound waves. All things give off vibrations, but some have a low frequency which most cannot hear. The reason: it may take 3 minutes to make a single vibration. They may be caused by earthquakes and storms.
Did You Know?
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Coke-a-Cola was originally green.
Rubberbands last longer when refrigerated.
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Schrödinger, Erwin: 1887 - 1961
Austrian physicist who studied wave mechanics, produced a mathematical description of quantum theory and atom structure, and shared the Nobel award for physics
in 1933 with P.A.M. Dirac.
Erwin Schrödinger was born in Vienna, Austria on August 12, 1887. He was the only child of Rudolf Schrödinger. His mother was the daughter of the Professor of Chemistry at Technical
College, Mr. Alexander Bauer. Blessed with intelligence, Schrödinger was able to gain a broad education. With a variety of blood in his family tree, Schrödinger had the ability to learn German and English
simultaneously. Up until the age of 10, his education was with a private tutor in his home. Entering Akademisches Gymnasium in 1898, his devotion was to Italian painting, but after this, Schrödinger
studied botany and wrote papers on plant phylogeny. It was here that he discovered a liking for the scientific disciplines; Schrödinger also had an appreciation of the severe logic of ancient grammar and
the beauty of German poetry. Schrödinger was gifted in the fields of mathematics and physics.
Through 1906 to 1910 he was enrolled at the University of Vienna, during which time he came under Fritz Hasenöhrl, Boltzmann's successor, who had a strong influence upon him.
Schrödinger received his doctorate in May, 1910. Schrödinger doctoral dissertation was on the conduction of electricity on the surface of insulators in moist air. He studied analytical mechanics,
Maxwell's equations and electromagnetic theory, optics, applications of partial differential equations to dynamics, eigenvalue problems, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in the field of
theoretical physics. During this time Schrödinger acquired a mastery of eigenvalue problems with physics of continuous media, which provided the foundation for later discoveries.
With the start of the First World War, Schrödinger served as an artillery officer on the Italian border. He continued his theoretical work by submitting a paper from his infantry position on the
Italian front. He was transferred to Hungary in 1915 where he submitted another work for publication. Returning to the Italian front, Schrödinger received a citation for excellence of command
during a battle. When he was sent back to Vienna in 1917, Schrödinger taught a meteorology course, which allowed him to pursue his quantum theory research and to publish his results. During 1918-1920 he
made contributions to the theory of color. It was in 1920 that Schrödinger married Annemarie Bertel. In 1921 he studied atomic structure and physiological optics, allowing him to continue his work on the
theory of color. He began his study of quantum statistics in 1924. In 1926 Schrödinger published a series of six papers relating to wave mechanics and the general theory of relativity. These six
papers provided the second formulation of quantum theory of wave mechanics.
Schrödinger was an assistant to Max Wien in 1920, and holding the positions of extraordinary professor at Stuttgart, ordinary professor at Breslau, and replaced von Laue at the University of Zurich where he
stayed for six years. This was Schrödinger's most productive period: papers dealing with specific heats of solids, problems of thermodynamics and atomic spectra. His greatest
discovery-Schrödinger's wave equation. As a result of this work he shared the Nobel Prize with Dirac in 1933.
In 1927 Schrödinger became Planck's successor in Berlin. Although he was Catholic Schrödinger was unwillingly to accept the killing of Jews when Hitler came to power and accepted a fellowship at
Oxford in 1933. He accepted a position at Graz in 1936, but with the annexation in 1938 of Austria, and his leaving Germany in 1933, Schrödinger escaped to Italy. After some time at
Princeton University, he became the Director of the School for Theoretical Physics at the new Advanced Studies in Dublin. He retired from there in 1955.
Schrödinger continued his research and published papers on many topics, including the unifying gravitation problem and electromagnetism. He authored the book What is Life? in 1944. Schrödinger was
often in controversy with other physicists and he found it difficult to work with others, even his students. His unconventional life style is known by the fact of carrying his personal belongings
in a rucksack over his back.
Schrödinger remained interested in mathematical physics during his remaining years and even continued work on general relativity, unified field theory, and meson physics. After a lengthy
illness, Schrödinger died on January 4, 1961.
Further Study:
Schrodinger
In Dutch and English. Document, publications, audio lectures.
NOTE: Photograph of Schrödinger by Prof. Dr. Heinz Reuter.
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