This however was not true for an atom.He thus developed a new form of mathematics to be able to describe the atom.After this huge discovery, he was excited as well as scared.He returned to University of Göttingen and worked with Max Born to develop a theory ,which today is called ‘ Matrix Mechanics‘.This theory was able to describe an atom mathematically.Īlthough,Albert Einstein absolutely did not like this idea, Niels Bohr and Pauli loved it! A war ensued between Heisenberg and Schrodinger.They both verbally attacked each other, reprehending each other’s theories. He decided to give up all mental pictures of an atom and to try to explain the structure of an atom mathematically.To his surprise, he found out that the behaviour of an atom could not even be explained by pure mathematics! In traditional mathematics, if two constants are multiplied, they yield the same answer e.g.- 7×8 =8×7. In 1925, Heisenberg was suffering from hay fever, due to which his face was swollen up beyond recognition.He decided to escape to an isolated island in Norway to spend some time alone. Heisenberg was a very young ,competitive man.He was exceptionally talented.At the age of 22, he got his PhD under Sommerfield!! Erwin Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg hated each other’s ideas.Heisenberg took Schrodinger’s ideas as a personal affront.He was now determined to prove that the capricious atom could not be modelled simply as waves(as proposed by Schrodinger) and that just an equation could not reveal its secret. Werner Heisenberg, was a German theoretical physicist,who was studying under Sommerfield.Sommerfield knew about Heisenberg’s interest in Niels Bohr’s thesis and so he introduced him to Bohr’s idea of Quantum Mechanics.Later,Heisenberg started working with Niels Bohr in 1924.He completely supported Bohr’s idea of the atom.

Heisenberg atomic theory