NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Arnold Sommerfeld

Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (December 5, 1868 in Königsberg, East Prussia – April 26, 1951 in Munich, Germany) was a German physicist who introduced the fine-structure constant in 1919. Image File history File links Sommerfeld. ... December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: MÃ¼nchen, (pronounced listen) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... Physicists working in a government lab A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. ... The Georg-August University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... Clausthal University of Technology (German: Technische UniversitÃ¤t Clausthal) is a university in Clausthal, Germany. ... RWTH Aachen University is a large university located in Aachen (Germany). ... With approximately 48,000 students, the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (German: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München or LMU) is one of the largest universities in Germany. ... The inscription upon Kants tomb in Kaliningrad. ... Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann (April 12, 1852 - March 6, 1939) was a German mathematician, noted for his proof, published in 1882, that π is a transcendental number, i. ... Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 â€“ February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ... Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (April 25, 1900 â€“ December 15, 1958) was an Austrian physicist noted for his work on the theory of spin, and in particular the discovery of the Exclusion principle, which underpins the whole of chemistry. ... Hans Bethe in 1945. ... Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije (March 24, 1884 â€“ November 2, 1966) was a Dutch physical chemist. ... Paul Peter Ewald (January 23, 1888 - August 22, 1985) was a U.S. (German-born) crystallographer and physicist. ... Alfred LandÃ© was a German physicist (1888-1976) known for his contributions to Quantum Theory. ... Herbert FrÃ¶hlich (9 December 1905 - 23 January 1991) was a German-born British physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society. ... The fine-structure constant or Sommerfeld fine-structure constant, usually denoted , is the fundamental physical constant characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. ... The Matteucci Medal was established to award physicists for their fundamental contributions. ... Lorentz Medal is an award given every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. ... December 5 is the 339th day (340th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: MÃ¼nchen, (pronounced listen) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern). ... The fine-structure constant or Sommerfeld fine-structure constant, usually denoted , is the fundamental physical constant characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Arnold Sommerfeld studied mathematics and physical sciences at University of Königsberg. After receiving his doctorate in 1891 he changed to the University of Göttingen, where he received a professorship in 1896. He became professor of mathematics at the University of Clausthal-Zellerfeld in 1897 and of technical engineering at the University of Aachen in 1900, where he developed the theory of Hydrodynamic lubrication. In 1897, he began a thirteen-year collaboration with C.F. Klein on a four-volume treatise of the gyroscope. The inscription upon Kants tomb in Kaliningrad. ... 1891 (MDCCCXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Georg-August University of GÃ¶ttingen (Georg-August-UniversitÃ¤t GÃ¶ttingen, often called the Georgia Augusta) was founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and opened in 1737. ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... RWTH Aachen University is a large university located in Aachen (Germany). ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... Hydrodynamic lubrication has four essential elements: Lubricant medium, in this case, liquid water. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Felix Christian Klein (April 25, 1849 â€“ June 22, 1925) was a German mathematician. ... A gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principle of conservation of angular momentum. ...

From 1906-1931 he established himself as professor of physics at the University of Munich. There he came in contact with the special theory of relativity by Albert Einstein, which was not yet widely accepted at that time. His mathematical contributions to the theory helped its acceptance by the skeptics. In 1914 he studied with Léon Brillouin the propagation of electromagnetic waves in dispersive media. Later he became one of the founders of quantum mechanics; he codiscovered the Sommerfeld-Wilson quantization rules, a generalization of Bohr's atomic model that was eventually superseded by the Schrödinger equation. His Atomic Structure and Spectral Lines (1919) became a classic. Many of his students, most notably Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Hans Bethe, Peter Debye and Paul Peter Ewald, became famous in their own right. 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: MÃ¼nchen, (pronounced listen) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern). ... Special relativity (SR) or the special theory of relativity is the physical theory published in 1905 by Albert Einstein. ... Einstein redirects here. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... LÃ©on N. Brillouin (August 7, 1889-1969) was a French physicist. ... Fig. ... The Bohr model of the hydrogen atom. ... Erwin SchrÃ¶dinger, as depicted on the former Austrian 1000 Schilling bank note. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 â€“ February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ... Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (April 25, 1900 â€“ December 15, 1958) was an Austrian physicist noted for his work on the theory of spin, and in particular the discovery of the Exclusion principle, which underpins the whole of chemistry. ... Hans Bethe in 1945. ... Petrus Josephus Wilhelmus Debije (March 24, 1884 â€“ November 2, 1966) was a Dutch physical chemist. ... Paul Peter Ewald (January 23, 1888 - August 22, 1985) was a U.S. (German-born) crystallographer and physicist. ...

In 1927 Sommerfeld applied Fermi-Dirac statistics to the Drude model of electrons in metals. The new theory solved many of the problems predicting thermal properties that model had. 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Fermi-Dirac distribution as a function of Îµ/Î¼ plotted for 4 different temperatures. ... The Drude model of electrical conduction was developed in the 1900s by Paul Drude to explain the transport properties of electrons in materials (especially metals). ... Properties The electron (also called negatron, commonly represented as e−) is a subatomic particle. ... Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds. ...

Sommerfeld was a great theoretician, and besides his invaluable contributions to the quantum theory, he worked in other fields of physics, such as the classical theory of electromagnetism. For example, he proposed a solution to the problem of a radiating hertzian dipole over a conducting earth, which over the years led to many applications. His Sommerfeld identity and Sommerfeld integrals are still to the present day the most common way to solve this kind of problem. The Earths magnetic field, which is approximately a dipole. ... The Sommerfeld identity is a mathematical identity, due Arnold Sommerfeld, used in the theory of propagation of waves, where is to be taken with positive real part, to ensure the convergence of the integral. ...

He was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1939. Lorentz Medal is an award given every four years by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. ...

Sommerfeld died in 1951 in Munich from injuries after a traffic accident. 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: MÃ¼nchen, (pronounced listen) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern). ...

Bibliography

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 â€“ February 1, 1976) was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. ...

External links

Categories: Quantum Theory physicists | 1868 births | 1951 deaths | German physicists | German natives of East Prussia | Erdős number 5 Image File history File links Wikiquote-logo-en. ... Wikiquote logo Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... The special theory of relativity was proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in his article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. Some three centuries earlier, Galileos principle of relativity had stated that all uniform motion was relative, and that there was no absolute and well-defined state of rest... General relativity (GR) is the geometrical theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915. ...