Wolfgang Pauli's Exclusion Principle
Overview
The Pauli exclusion principle enabled the quantum structure of the atom to be understood. It provided a mechanism to explain the variety and behavior of the chemical elements, and it gave a theoretical basis for the periodic table. It was one of the key pieces of the quantum puzzle and had far-reaching implications, many of which have yet to be fully understood.
Background
Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) was a child prodigy, excelling in classical history as well as mathematics and science. At the Döbling Gymnasium (a high school in Vienna) he was taught classical physics just when classical notions were under attack from new quantum ideas. He read widely on general relativity and became something of an authority on the subject, publishing three academic papers within a year of graduating high school.
Pauli went on to study at the University of Munich, under Arnold Sommerfield (1868-1951), who introduced him to the radical new quantum theory. As Pauli recalled years later, "I was spared the shock which every physicist accustomed to the classical way of thinking experienced when he came to know Niels Bohr's basic postulate of quantum theory for the first time." Quantum theory seemed to contradict common sense and was difficult to visualize.
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