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Posts tagged ‘physics’

Vienna: physicist Erwin Schrödinger

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In 1933, the Nobel Prize Foundation awarded the physics prize jointly to Dr. Erwin Schrödinger and Dr. Paul Dirac for their development of techniques to solve problems in the burgeoning field of atomic physics. Schrödinger established the system of wave mechanics to study the motion within atoms and molecules. The mathematical forms for the wave properties of matter directly led to solutions as well as further insights in modern atomic physics.

The following images show some of the places where Schrödinger (1887–1961) spent time in his work- and home-life: traces he left behind in Vienna. He and his wife are buried in the Tirolean town of Alpbach.

University of Vienna (1.)

*Next to the Ringstraße is the University of Vienna main building by **Heinrich Ferstel** and inaugurated in 1884.*

*Erwin’s youthful gaze is part of the university’s display of its Nobel Prize laureates.*

*Memorial statue in Arkadenhof: Erwin Schrödinger’s equation in quantum mechanics is what Newton’s equation “F = ma” is to classical mechanics.*

(2nd) Institute of Physics (9.)

*Former location of the (second) Physics Institute, 1875 to 1913*.

*Memorial plaque on the exterior wall, in recognition of some of the scientists who once worked at the Physics Institute, including Stefan, Boltzmann, Meyer, Meitner, Hess, and Schrödinger.*

Schrödinger Residence (9.)

*Building address Pasteurgasse 4, where Schrödinger lived for a number of years, near the Strudlhofstiege staircase.*

*Memorial plaque at Pasteurgasse 4: “University of Vienna professor, physicist, and Nobel Prize laureate Erwin Schrödinger lived in this building from 1956 to 1961.”*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 6 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-t9q.

24T75 Kepler’s birthtown, Weil der Stadt

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In fairness, I’m gonna nerd out here.

In high school, physics and mathematics were speaking clearly to me in a language that helped explain a piece of the world I struggled to understand; I had many unanswered questions. Later at many academic institutions, the choices I made continued to satisfy my ongoing curiosity. Over the course of my training, Johannes Kepler is one of many names whose scientific work made “sense” and provided some “ordered logic” to my (naive and incomplete) perception of “illogic” and “nonsense.”

What I didn’t know is that decades later, I’m interested in discovering and finding the physical traces for those names. I still have questions, but they no longer involve difficult calculations. Instead, it’s about the “math” of how individuals reach their destinations.

I’m on a train heading out from Stuttgart, not to the famous car museums, but to a town where Johannes Kepler was born. There’s no doubt in my mind this has become a kind of pilgrimage.

*With S-Bahn Stuttgart S6 train service, Weil der Stadt is a 40-minute trip from Stuttgart.*

*Kepler-Denkmal (1870) am Marktplatz / Kepler memorial (1870) at the town’s market square.*

*Inauguration of the Kepler memorial on 24 June 1870. Stadtmuseum (town museum) collection.*

In Weil der Stadt, the Kepler-Museum is inside the house where Johannes Kepler was born in 1571. In 1576, the Kepler family moved out from Weil der Stadt and to the nearby town of Leonberg. The museum not only summarizes Kepler’s timeline but also highlights a number of key influences on Kepler, as well as his scientific contributions.

*Copernicus view: the heliocentric model of the solar system; idea also attributed to Greek astronomer Aristarch of Samos from 3rd-century BCE.*

*Aware of Copernicus’ work, Kepler’s own thoughts and ideas were greatly influenced by the Copernicus model of a Sun-centric solar system.*

*Undoubtedly thanks to the long arduous work by Tycho Brahe, Kepler’s 1627 orbit-data tables for the planets were the most accurate of its time.*

With the introduction of the “logarithm” as a mathematical tool by John Napier in 1617, Kepler realized his own calculations became simpler (because, power laws!) and published supplementary data using logarithms.

*Celestial mechanics, Kepler’s 1st Law. “Each planet’s orbit is in the shape of an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.*”

*Celestial mechanics, Kepler’s 2nd Law. “An object in an elliptical orbit around the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals of time.”*

Celestial mechanics, Kepler’s 3rd Law. “For an object in an elliptical orbit around the Sun, the time to complete one full orbit is U (T) and the ellipse’s semi-major axis (or average distance) is A. The relationship between U and A is that the square of the period (U^2) is directly proportional to the cube of the average distance (A^3).”

*“Keplerstadt: Weil der Stadt.” Inside Weil der Stadt Bahnhof.*

I made all photos above with an iPhone15 on 21 Jul 2024. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

24T40 University of Vienna & her physicists

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Established in 1365 as one of the oldest universities in Europe, the University of Vienna has been home to her share of remarkable people in teaching and research. A first love is physics; so I go willingly into that space, to look for a number of physicists at Uni.Wien.

*Main building of the university (Hauptgebäude), built by Heinrich Ferstel on the Ringstrasse; inaugurated 1884.*

*Erwin Schrödinger, atomic & nuclear physics; awarded 1933 Nobel Prize in physics.*

*Viktor Franz Hess, for his work on atmospheric cosmic rays, awarded 1936 Nobel Prize in physics.*

*Arkadenhof (arcade courtyard), where prominent university staff and faculty are highlighted as plaques and busts.*

*Left: Christian Doppler, physics professor 1860-1863. Right: Erwin Schrödinger, and his famous equation for quantum mechanics*.

*Johannes and Karl Littrow: Littrow, as in Littrow configuration in optics.*

*Franz Exner, physics professor (1891-1920) and whose PhD students included: Stefan Meyer, Lise Meitner, Felix Ehrenhaft.*

*Josef Stefan, of the Stefan-Boltzmann Law; physics professor from 1863 to 1893.*

*Ludwig Boltzmann, of the Stefan-Boltzmann Law; physics and maths professor.*

*Lise Meitner, atomic & nuclear physics, who should have had a share in the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry*.

*Berta Karlik, atomic & nuclear physics; in 1956 Karlik the first woman to receive full professor from the University of Vienna.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 16 Jun 2024. I received neither sponsor nor support from any organization. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

My Vienna: Ludwig Boltzmann was here

The name is a large presence, particularly to many in science.

To others, the name might have little significance as any other name, like Helmut Grossuhrmacher. OK, I made that name up.

A name I didn’t make up is Ludwig Boltzmann, whose contributions to science are fundamental in an understanding of heat- or thermal-physics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. After several years of undergraduate- and graduate-level physics, Boltzmann is one of many names imprinted into memory, firmly established in the left-side of my brain.

Boltzmann highlights

• b/✵ 20 February 1844 – d/✟ 5 September 1906.
• Born and raised in Vienna, Boltzmann enroled at age 19 in the University of Vienna to study mathematics and physics.
• Supervised by Josef Stefan, Boltzmann completed his doctoral dissertation “Über die mechanische Bedeutung des zweiten Hauptsatzes der mechanischen Wärmetheorie” (On the mechanical significance of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics) in 1866 at the age of 22.
• 1869–1873: University of Graz, with visits to Heidelberg and Berlin.
• 1873–1876: University of Vienna.
• 1876–1890: University of Graz.
• 1890–1894: (Ludwig Maximilian) University of Munich.
• 1894–1900: after Josef Stefan’s retirement, Boltzmann returns as professor of mathematics and physics at University of Vienna.
• 1900–1902: Leipzig University.
• 1902–1906: University of Vienna; he also teaches physics, mathematics, and philosophy.
• Doctoral students Boltzmann supervised and advised included: Paul Ehrenfest, Lise Meitner, Stefan Meyer, Walther Nernst.
• Speaking tour of the United States in 1905, including his stay that summer in Berkeley at the University of California. Evident from his trip report, Reise eines deutschen Professors ins Eldorado, is his sense of humour.

Time has been kind to Vienna, a city filled with notable personalities in arts, architecture, music, and science. Throughout its cemeteries, the city has assigned “graves of honour” (Ehrengrab) for many, including Boltzmann. Finding his final spot was one of many favourite moments in 2018. However, Boltzmann’s significance to the University of Vienna, to the physics world, and to time I spent in physics persuaded me to create a short (walking-)tour of Vienna to highlight some of his traces and memorialization in the city.

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Vienna: Dr. Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler, trailblazer & women’s advocate

In examining the history of the University of Vienna, I discovered Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler was the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in physics from the university in 1903. Who was she? How did she become the first? How did society of the time view the education of young women?

I’m starting a series on women who left their mark on Vienna and Austria, and some of the traces they left behind in the Austrian capital city. With educators, inventors, writers, and scientists, my serial includes: Dr. Marietta Blau; Marianne Hainisch; Hedwig Kiesler, a.k.a. Hedy Lamarr; Dr. Lise Meitner; Dr. Gabriele Possanner; Dr. Elise Richter; and Bertha von Suttner.

Who: Dr. Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler: b/✵ 28 Oct 1879, d/✟ 21 Dec 1933.
PhD: 1st woman with doctoral degree in physics from University of Vienna, 1903.
Educator: Early 20th-century teacher & advocate for better access to education for young women.

In late 19th-century and early 20th-century Austria and Vienna, Olga Steindler was one of countless women who faced difficulties and challenges by young women who wanted to expand their education and improve employment, all of which were viewed by society at the time as undesirable. Feminism or anything similar did not exist.

Born and raised in Vienna, Olga Steindler departed her home for Prague to complete and pass her final high-school examinations in 1899, because young women were not permitted to do so within Austria at the time. She subsequently enrolled at the University of Vienna to study physics and mathematics within the Faculty of Philosophy. Only two years earlier in 1897 had the University of Vienna finally accepted the enrolment of women, although they were initially allowed only into the Faculty of Philosophy. In 1903, Steindler became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Vienna after successfully completing her research dissertation.

Completing qualifications for teaching at secondary (high) schools in the same year, she joined the “Athenäum” where she taught young women about experimental physics; she also taught at Vienna’s first girls’ secondary school established by Marianne Hainisch in the city’s 1st district. In 1907, she founded two new schools in Vienna: a girls’ public secondary school in the city’s 2nd district, and a business school for young women in the city’s 8th district. Steindler married her physicist colleague Dr. Felix Ehrenhaft in 1908; she became known as Dr. Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler. She championed the cause for educating girls and young women, and creating new opportunities in science, business, and society at large. For her dedicated service to the public, Austria awarded her in 1931 the title of “Hofrat” as a new member of the imperial court advisory council, an honour uncommon among Austrian women at the time. At the age of 54, Dr. Olga Ehrenhaft-Steindler died in December 1933 from complications after having contracted pneumonia.

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