Nobel prize-winning Austrian quantum physicist perhaps most famous for the mind experiment known as Schrödinger’s Cat
Schrödinger won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933 for the introduction of Schrödinger's wave, a mathematical equation of wave mechanics that is still the most widely used piece of Mathematics in modern quantum theory.
Erwin Schrodinger was born in Vienna on the 12th August 1887 to Rudolf Schrodinger and Georgine Emilia Brenda.
He was initially tutored at home then studied theoretical physics at the University of Vienna under Franz S. Exner and Friedrich Hasenohrl. By 1911, he was already assisting Exner.
He later undertook military service, before returning to academia.
In 1925, while he was professor of physics at the University of Zurich, Schrödinger formulated a wave-equation that accurately gave the energy levels of atoms.
The theory won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933 and was possibly his greatest contribution to the field.
Schrödinger’s other work was wide ranging including the physics of dielectrics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology.
In the years after his Nobel Prize win Schrödinger was critical of contemporary interpretations of quantum mechanics.
He used the thought experiment, known as Schrödinger's cat, to illustrate the problems surrounding the application of the "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum mechanics to everyday objects.
The thought experiment presented a cat that could be alive or dead, based on an earlier random event.
Erwin Schrödinger died in Vienna in January 1961 from the tuberculosis.
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