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Student Colloquium - Tobias Claus: The End of Determinism: The History of Quantum Mechanics

Info about event

Time

Thursday 22 November 2018,  at 14:15 - 15:00
[Translate to English:] 1927 Solvay Conference on Quantum Mechanics. Photograph by Benjamin Couprie, Institut International de Physique Solvay, Brussels, Belgium.
[Translate to English:] 1927 Solvay Conference on Quantum Mechanics. Photograph by Benjamin Couprie, Institut International de Physique Solvay, Brussels, Belgium.

Supervisor: Dmitri Fedorov

Quantum mechanics is one of the most interesting parts of physics and is a part of the physics curriculum all over the world. Important applications of quantum mechanics include, among others, lasers, electron microscopes, transistors, LEDs, atomic clocks and GPS.

In this talk I will have a closer look on the history and conceptual development of quantum mechanics which started about 100 years ago. I will mention some of the key experiments and theoretical considerations. Starting by Planck and the black body radiation, I will talk about the founding works Albert Einstein, Nils Bohr and Louis de Broglie as well as about the matrix mechanics of Werner Heisenberg, Max Born and Pascual Jordan; and  the wave-mechanics of Erwin Schrödinger. The talk does not  demand specific knowledge but an interest in the development of thoughts and the history of physics and science.