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125 years of quantum mechanics: Heisenberg's breakthrough changes physics!
On January 8, 2025, the article highlights the history and significance of Heisenberg's quantum mechanics, which began in 1925.
125 years of quantum mechanics: Heisenberg's breakthrough changes physics!
In 2025, quantum mechanics will be 100 years old, a milestone that was initiated by the groundbreaking article “On quantum theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships” by Werner Heisenberg on July 29, 1925 in the “Magazine for Physics”. Heisenberg, then only 23 years old and an assistant at the Göttingen Institute for Theoretical Physics, revolutionized the understanding of the atomic world. According to the German Physical Society (DPG), this work represented the first step towards a consistent theory that would fundamentally change our knowledge of the smallest building blocks of matter, while classical laws increasingly failed. The DPG emphasizes that quantum mechanics is a “mysterious process” in the history of science because it is not based on a single discovery, but was the result of collective efforts.
The emergence of quantum mechanics
The theory developed by Heisenberg was not immediately understandable. A comparison with a football game makes this clear: While in a normal game the flow of the ball is visible, with Heisenberg's approach it remains unclear how the ball gets into the goal. His theory bypassed basic concepts of classical mechanics and focused on measurable quantities such as frequency and intensity of spectral lines, which is crucial for quantum physics. Together with his colleagues Max Born and Pascual Jordan, Heisenberg formulated a complex mathematical structure in the famous “three-man work” that formed the basis for quantum mechanics.
The theories initiated by Heisenberg caused other outstanding physicists, such as Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, to respond. While Einstein spoke of "masonry" to criticize the complexity and groundlessness of Heisenberg's approach, Louis de Broglie introduced his wave hypothesis, which revolutionized the nature of the electron. Significant progress was also made in the following years, such as the Schrödinger equation, which founded wave mechanics and confirmed the mathematical applicability of quantum mechanics.
Heisenberg's teachings continue to have a significant influence on the foundations of modern physics today, even though quantum mechanics is still considered mysterious in nature. Physicists around the world are building on the concepts of quantum mechanics and using them in areas such as quantum computing and cryptography, referred to as the second quantum revolution. These technologies, based on the rules of quantum mechanics, have the potential to bring about social transformations comparable to those of the first quantum revolution with the development of transistors and lasers. Loud Nature Quantum mechanics remains one of the most tested and at the same time most enigmatic theories in physics.