-
Birth
Born Niels Henrik David Bohr in Copenhagen, Denmark. -
Bohr-Rutherford Model
At this time, Bohr was studying under Rutherford and his model to describe the atom fascinated him. He adopted the planetary model proposed by Rutherford but added the Planck constant, most notably. This was in complete contrast to how atomic physics was being considered at this time. -
Period: to
Copenhagen Interpretation
Developed in part with Heisenberg, it is one of the oldest and numerous proposed interpretations of quantum mechanics and remains one of the most commonly taught. The Copenhagen Interpretation is the culmination of ideas that gave the basis for quantum mechanics, that complementary ideas sometimes opposite, were required to explain the entire concept. Einstein and Schrodinger were strong dissenters, that there should be a more complete picture, not of what can be said, but "seen" - Continued. -
The Indeterminacy Principle
Even as Einstein postulated early on about "particle-wave duality" as early as 1095, Bohr was focused on unifying current thinking that was able to be proven mathematically, most notably wanting Heisenberg to combine his particle-oriented "matrix mechanics" to Schrodinger's "wave mechanics". Bohr's line of thinking that no one experiment could compass everything that we could observe regarding particles and waves, momentum and position, energy and time, etc. -
The Como Lecture
Bohr was considered a logical positivist, influenced by Ernst Mach and sharing similar ideas to Immanuel Kant. The lecture was when the term "complementarity" was first introduced that described the dualistic view of how photons could be both considered waves and particles. There was sufficient evidence to indicate that when Bohr was formulating these ideas, he did not want to compete with Einstein's "wave-particle duality". -
Death
Died of heart failure in his home in Carlsberg. -
Battle Over Quantum Mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBgC0PyIomU - Small, concise overview of the origin of Quantum Mechanics.