- Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ForMemRS HonMRIA (UK: /ˈʃrɜːdɪŋə, ˈʃroʊdɪŋə/, US: /ˈʃroʊdɪŋər/; German: [ˈɛɐ̯vɪn ˈʃʁøːdɪŋɐ]; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as Schroedinger or Schrodinger, was a Nobel Prize–winning Austrian and naturalized Irish physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognized for postulating the Schrödinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time. He coined the term “quantum entanglement”, and was the earliest to discuss it, doing so in 1932.
- Schrödinger equation (Wikipedia)
The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. Its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of quantum mechanics. It is named after Erwin Schrödinger, who postulated the equation in 1925 and published it in 1926, forming the basis for the work that resulted in his Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933.
- Schrödinger was born in Erdberg [de], Vienna, Austria, on 12 August 1887, to Rudolf Schrödinger [de] (cerecloth producer, botanist) and Georgine Emilia Brenda Schrödinger (née Bauer) (daughter of Alexander Bauer [de], professor of chemistry, TU Wien). He was their only child.
- On 4 January 1961, Schrödinger died of tuberculosis, aged 73, in Vienna.
- Schrödinger’s cat (Wikipedia)
In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment concerning quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead, while it is unobserved in a closed box, as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. This experiment viewed this way is described as a paradox. This thought experiment was devised by physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 in a discussion with Albert Einstein to illustrate what Schrödinger saw as the problems of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.