Carissa+Greene

=Erwin Schrödinger =

** Biography     ** == Erwin Schrödinger (August 12, 1887 – January 4, 1961) was an Austrian physicist well known for his developed equation (aka the Schrodinger Equation) that described the probability of finding an electron in any given location. This equation helped him achieve the Nobel Peace Prize in 1933. He wrote a theory of the behavior of electrons in atoms based on Broglie’s proposal that particles in some situations act like waves. This approach to quantum mechanics became known as wave mechanics. He also contributed to quantum mechanics and suggested the Schrodinger cat thought experiment. ==

== He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1887 to a chemist/botanist as a father. Schrodinger was also the grandson of a professor of chemistry at the Technical College of Vienna. Between 1906 and 1910 he studied Eigenvalue problems in the physics of continuous media with Fritz Hasenohrl and Franz Exner whom Schrodinger was assistant to. After school in 1920 he was assistant to Max Wien. By 1920 he was associate professor in Stuttgart and a professor by 1921. Erwin returned to school at Zürich University in 1922. In January 1926 he published the Annalen der Physik, the paper (quantization as an Eigenvalue problem) on wave mechanics and what is known as the Schrodinger equation (shown below). ==

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/xiankai/school/equations.jpg

Work
== Schrodinger set out to describe the location and power of the electron in the hydrogen atom. He successfully did so with his wave equations. The wave equations along with Heisenberg’s uncertainty principal said the electrons don’t move in a defined path, but move somewhere within a cloud. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principal said that it is impossible to know both the location and velocity of an electron at the same time. == == So Schrodinger proposed that the electron is really a wave that doesn’t move within the energy level, it just changes energy levels. When we try to look at the electron to see where it is, we see something that resembles an electron, but it is really just an area of the wave. When we try to check the speed of the electron, we are really seeing how much power the electron has due to its orbital level. The wave equations that Schrodinger created illustrate where the electron is in terms of energy level. ==

//Here is a video describing the basis of Schrodingers work from Dr. Quantum.// media type="youtube" key="x_tNzeouHC4" height="344" width="425" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_tNzeouHC4

== The famous slit experiment as illustrated by Dr. Quantum in the video shows how the electron waves act in a constructive way to create the electron cloud that surrounds the nucleus, which is why you can tell energy level but not the actual position. When the wavelength from a light packet (a photon) is introduced to the electron cloud to “see” the location of the electron, the waves from both the electron and the light packet are hitting each other to cancel out, thus giving us the “position” of the electron in the orbital. == media type="youtube" key="7SjFJImg2Z8" height="344" width="425" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SjFJImg2Z8

== The cat experiment explains Schrodinger’s theory in that when the cat (electron) is in the box (orbital), we have no idea what its state of existence is. If the radioactive material decays, the cat dies, if it does not decay, then it lives. The probability that it lives or dies is 50/50, which is what Schrodinger’s theory does; it gives a way to find the probability of where an electron is in an orbital without actually looking at it. ==

//The idea that electrons are waves went into the development of the electron orbitals.//

Works Cited "Erwin Schrödinger -." __Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia__. 05 Jan. 2009 . "Erwin Schrödinger - Biography." __Nobelprize.org__. 05 Jan. 2009 . Gjertsen, Derek, and Michael Allaby, eds. __Makers of Science__. Vol. 4. New York: Oxford UP, Incorporated, 2001. __On Truth and Reality: Philosophy Physics Metaphysics of Space, Wave Structure Matter. Famous Science Art Quotes__. 05 Jan. 2009 . "Physics 2000." __University of Colorado at Boulder__. 07 Jan. 2009 . "Schrödinger equation -." __Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia__. 05 Jan. 2009 .