Physicist, born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied at Copenhagen University, went to England to work at Cambridge and Manchester, and in 1920 founded the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, which he directed until his death. He greatly extended the theory of atomic structure when he explained the spectrum of hydrogen by means of an atomic model and quantum theory (1913). During World War 2 he assisted atomic bomb research in America, returning to Copenhagen in 1945. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.
Niels Bohr|
Niels Henrik David Bohr |
|
| Born |
October 7, 1885 Copenhagen, Denmark |
|---|---|
| Died |
November 18, 1962 Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Field | Physicist |
| Institution | University of Copenhagen |
| Doctoral Advisor | Christian Christiansen |
| Known for |
Copenhagen interpretation Complementarity |
| Notable Prizes | Nobel Prize (1922) |
Niels (Henrik David) Bohr [nels ˈb̥oɐ̯ˀ] (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics.
Biography
Early years
Niels Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1885. His father, Christian Bohr, was professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen, while his mother, Ellen Adler Bohr, came from a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family prominent in Danish banking and parliamentary circles. His brother was Harald Bohr, a mathematician and Olympic soccer player who played in the Danish national team; Niels Bohr was a passionate soccer player as well, and the two brothers played a number of matches for Akademisk Boldklub.
Bohr received his doctorate from Copenhagen University in 1911 under Christian Christiansen. On the basis of Rutherford's theories, Bohr published his model of atomic structure in 1913, introducing the theory of electrons traveling in orbits around the atom's nucleus, the chemical properties of the element being largely determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits. Bohr also introduced the idea that an electron could drop from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one, emitting a photon (light quantum) of discrete energy.
Middle years
In 1916, Niels Bohr became a professor at the University of Copenhagen, and director of the newly constructed "Institute of Theoretical Physics" in 1920. In 1922, Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them". Bohr's institute served as a focal point for theoretical physicists in the 1920s and '30s, and most of the world's best known theoretical physicists of that period spent some time there.
Bohr also conceived the principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analyzed as having several contradictory properties. Albert Einstein much preferred the determinism of classical physics over the probabilistic new physics of Bohr (to which Max Planck and Einstein himself had contributed). He and Bohr had good-natured arguments over the truth of this principle throughout their lives (see Bohr Einstein debate). One of Bohr's most famous students was Werner Heisenberg, a crucial figure in the development of quantum mechanics, who was also head of the German atomic bomb project.
Niels Bohr and his wife Margrethe Nørlund had six children. One, Aage Niels Bohr, also became a very successful physicist;
Later years, death, and legacy
In 1941, during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II, Bohr was visited by Heisenberg in Copenhagen (see next section).
Bohr believed that atomic secrets should be shared by the international scientific community. Robert Oppenheimer suggested Bohr visit President Franklin Roosevelt to convince him that the Manhattan Project should be shared with the Russians in the hope of speeding up its results. In 1965, three years after Bohr's death, the institute of physics at the university of Copenhagen changed its name to the Niels Bohr Institute.
Kierkegaard's influence on Bohr
It is generally accepted that Bohr read the 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
Given this, there has been some dispute over whether Kierkegaard influenced Bohr's philosophy and science. David Favrholdt argues that Kierkegaard had minimal influence over Bohr's work; taking Bohr's statement about disagreeing with Kierkegaard at face value, while Jan Faye argues the opposing point of view;
Relationship with Heisenberg
Bohr and Heisenberg enjoyed a strong mentor/mentee relationship up to the onset of World War II. At that point, the relationship became somewhat strained because Bohr, with his Jewish heritage, remained in occupied Denmark, while Heisenberg remained in Germany. Heisenberg made a now-famous visit to Bohr in September 1941, and during a private moment, began to discuss nuclear weapons and the war efforts. Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen, which ran on Broadway for a time, explores what might have happened at the 1941 meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr. The truth of the historical event is still a matter of scholarly debate, as neither Bohr nor Heisenberg spoke about it in any detail, and they were alone in the woods. In correspondence to his wife, Heisenberg described the final visit of the trip: "Today I was once more, with Weizsaecker, at Bohr's.
In 1957, while the author Robert Jungk was working on the book Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Heisenberg wrote to Jungk explaining that he had visited Copenhagen to communicate to Bohr his view that scientists on neither side should help develop the atomic bomb, that the German attempts were entirely focused on energy production, and that Heisenberg's circle of colleagues tried to keep it that way. However, Heisenberg acknowledged that his cryptic approach of the subject had so-alarmed Bohr that the discussion failed.
When Bohr saw this erroneous depiction in the Danish translation of Jungk's book, he disagreed wholeheartedly. Around 1999, Niels Bohr and the University of Copenhagen began appearing as parts of "The Barometer Problem" , an unverified urban legend illustrating lateral thinking. Niels Bohr was featured in the video game Secret Weapons Over Normandy by Lucasarts. 1912) Son: Aage Niels Bohr Bohr was Left handed On a Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode entitled "Captain & Tennille" Space Ghost babbles: "What in the name of the coefficient of the speed of light, multiplied by the red shift to the hypotenuse of the nth root, hypotenuse, hypotenuse..." Niels Bohr is mentioned as being the only person who "gets" him.
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