Historical Figure
Wolfgang Pauli
1900–1958
Austrian–Swiss theoretical physicist (1900–1958)
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Biography
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was an Austrian–Swiss theoretical physicist and a pioneer of quantum mechanics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the Exclusion Principle, also called the Pauli Principle". The discovery involved spin theory, which is the basis of a theory of the structure of matter.
In Their Own Words (5)
The failure of the many attempts to measure terrestrially any effects of the earth’s motion...
The Theory of Relativity, 1958, p. 4 , 1958
A colleague who met me strolling rather aimlessly in the beautiful streets of Copenhagen said to me in a friendly manner, “You look very unhappy”; whereupon I answered fiercely, “How can one look happy when he is thinking about the anomalous Zeeman effect?”.
Writings on Physics and Philosophy (1994), p. 15 , 1994
It seems significant that according to quantum physics the indestructibility of energy on one hand — which expresses its timeless existence — and the appearance of energy in space and time on the other hand correspond to two contradictory (complementary) aspects of reality. In fact, both are always present, but in individual cases the one or the other may be more pronounced.
"Modern Examples of Background Physics" ["Moderne Beispiele zur Hintergrundsphysik"] (1948) as translated by David Roscoe in Atom and Archetype (1992) edited by Carl Alfred Meier , 1948
When I was young, I thought I was the best formalist of my time. I thought I was a revolutionary. When the big problems would come, I would solve them and write about them. The big problems came and passed by, others solved them and wrote about them. I was a classicist and not a revolutionary.
As quoted in Faust in Copenhagen (2007) by Gino Segrè, p. 130.5, which cites The Historical Development of Quantum Theory (1982) by Jagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg, vol 1 of 4, p. xxiv, and Inward Bound (1986) by Abraham Pais, p. 186 , 2007
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.
Response after reading a colleague's paper, quoted in The Successful Toastmaster: A Treasure Chest of Introductions, Epigrams, Humor, and Quotations (1966) by Herbert Victor Prochnow, p. 350, and in Mathematical Apocrypha Redux : More Stories and Anecdotes of Mathematicians and the Mathematical (2005) by Steven George Krantz, p. 194 , 1966
Timeline
The story of Wolfgang Pauli, told in moments.
Formulated the exclusion principle. No two electrons in an atom can have the same set of quantum numbers. The idea explained why matter takes up space, why the periodic table has its structure, and why chemistry works at all.
Werner Heisenberg wrote to Pauli describing his uncertainty principle for the first time. Pauli was the sounding board for nearly every major quantum physics breakthrough. Other physicists called him "the conscience of physics."
Predicted the existence of the neutrino to explain missing energy in beta decay. He apologized for predicting a particle that couldn't be detected. It was finally observed in 1956.
Won the Nobel Prize in Physics, nominated by Albert Einstein. Pauli had been at Princeton during the war, having fled Austria in 1940. His sharp tongue was famous. His worst insult: "That's not even wrong."
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